There is a strong focus on students’ literacy and numeracy skills within our curriculum. Our academy Literacy and Numeracy Coordinators promote the focus of these skills across the curriculum and our Directors and Heads of English and Maths support the development and tracking of these initiatives.
Our academy provides a variety of programmes and initiatives such as DEAR (Drop Everything and Read) in tutor time in key stage 3 and others you can read about in our Reading policy. Our academy operates a Written Accuracy Campaign to focus students’ punctuation and spelling accuracy. Spelling programmes are used and subject vocabulary is defined and promoted in lessons. Marking codes are consistently used across all subjects and feedback given in all subjects address literacy. Each subject has a focus on disciplinary literacy: vocabulary specific to their subject which learners must know to succeed and answer assessment questions correctly.
In numeracy, consistent approaches are promoted across subjects. The schemes of learning in maths include specific lessons designed to recap and recall previously taught numeracy. Staff development is supported through numeracy bulletins, and there is a glossary to ensure a consistent language around numerical terms across mathematic lessons and whole school. For those students requiring specific support, small group and bespoke programmes are provided. Support will be provided by teaching assistants and specialists trained using Numicon.