At Sir Thomas Boteler Church of England High School, we recognise that learning is taught through language. Therefore, making all literacy skills essential for academic and holistic success. As a school, we pride ourselves in being the ‘Boteler family’, as a result we know our students really well. Teachers identify the learners who are weaker readers and support these learners through Quality First Teaching. All staff are expert readers and model excellent literacy. Our Access Vocabulary provision ensures that all learners are equipped with the vocabulary that they need to be successful across all curriculum areas. Finally, through structured talk practise, students are guided by all staff to gain confidence in speaking for a variety of purposes, which supports their academic success, life in the community and careers journey. All students in Year 7 and Year 10 complete a reading test (Sparx Reader) in September to determine their current reading ability. Improving and emerging readers are supported through bespoke interventions.

What we deliver to support students’ literacy in school:

As well as a clear focus on accurate use of SPaG in students’ written work, we provide the following evidence-based literacy strategies:

• Access vocabulary, delivered by teachers each lesson, to improve students’ knowledge about subject specific word morphology, etymology and build cultural capital. 
• Reading for Pleasure in tutor time and across curriculums, to broaden students’ literary horizons and promote wellbeing.
• Library induction during six English lesson across the academic year for all Year 7 students. A structured lesson in the library with the school librarian to promote library usage, increase cultural capital and reading for pleasure.
• Sparx Reader fortnightly lesson in the library for all Key Stage 3 students as part of the English curriculum. Additionally, all students in Key Stage 3 and Year 10 complete a weekly Sparx Reader homework. Promoting engagement with reading, improved comprehension, progress in reading ability and engagement with a wider variety of fiction texts. This is supported by a fortnightly check in with form tutors to promote engagement and support students’ reading development.
• Reciprocal Reading (predict, question, clarify, summarise), led by form tutors once per fortnight, to develop reading and oracy expertise so students can confidently read challenging texts in any subject.
• Bespoke interventions: we follow the latest research into literacy and deliver interventions e.g. Lexonic Leap and Lexonic Advance for improving and emerging readers.
• Bookbuzz: from September 2021, we are involved in Bookbuzz- a reading programme from BookTrust that aims to inspire a love of reading in our Year 6 into 7 students. Students choose their own book to take home and keep from a list of 17 titles – all of which are selected by a panel of experts to ensure quality, suitability and to encourage reading for pleasure.
• The National Literacy Trust: we are members of this independent charity working with schools and communities to give disadvantaged children the literacy skills to succeed in life.
• Annual Scholastic book fair: we have close connections with Scholastic books who provide the school with an annual book fair which is held in the library. The book fair has a wide range of books suitable for young adults. Parents are invited in to attend the fair and our Pupil Premium students may choose to use their vouchers for any purchases.

Reading for pleasure and for information

To promote our students’ enjoyment of reading, we facilitate access to variety of texts via our school library.

What does the library provide?

• Access during lunch time and during fortnightly Key Stage 3 English lesson.
• A range of exciting books, magazines and newspapers are on offer to read and enjoy.
• Book requests can be made by all staff and students to ensure our learners always have something to read that is interesting and challenging for them.

In addition to our library, all staff have a ‘currently reading’ poster in their classrooms and offices so students can see what we are reading. Our staffroom too has a community book share so you can see that our school’s love of reading runs throughout the entire staff!

Rewards

• 2 house points added for all students engaging in reading aloud across all curriculum areas.
• 2 house points added for all students demonstrating excellent literacy skills across all curriculum areas.
• Termly Head of Year recognition for students modelling expert literacy skills.
• End of year reward trip for Year 10 English & library ambassadors and expert readers in Key Stage 3.

We also run a wide range of exciting competitions over the academic year to encourage our young people to get involved with reading, writing, speaking and listening. We have both school and national competitions. Some of our favourites are the BBC’s ‘500 Words’ writing competition and the National Literacy Trust’s team competition to find the nation’s ‘Reading Champions’.