ST BENEDICT’S CATHOLIC HIGH SCHOOL
incorporating
WEST CUMBRIA CATHOLIC SIXTH FORM CENTRE
LITERACY POLICY
St Benedict’s aims to provide a broad educational experience to the highest possible standard for
every student. If we are to achieve this aim, all students must develop literacy skills that allow
them to understand and use language across all subject areas. All subjects must explicitly develop
abilities to speak, listen, read and write in real contexts.
Good literacy skills contribute to successful learning and poor literacy skills are a barrier to learning
and can be linked to disruptive behaviour. The ability to communicate is key to a student’s
progress in school and in the wider world because their progress in literacy is linked to their ability
to think and learn. If we are to meet the needs and aspirations of individual learners to maximise
their achievement and produce independent, life-long learners then we must have a coherent,
whole school approach to language and learning. The systematic and explicit development of
language and learning skills across the curriculum enables students to achieve more in all subjects
and to take greater control and responsibility for their own learning and to develop confidence in
their ability to communicate effectively in and out of the classroom.
Principle 1
Speaking and Listening
Speaking and listening play an increasingly important role in making sense of new information,
developing student confidence and their ability to clarify their thinking in subjects across the
curriculum.
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All departments will explicitly develop the speaking and listening skills of our students
through structured approaches to speaking and listening opportunities in their subject. Staff
should use the Speaking and Listening criteria central to English National Curriculum to
develop their own understanding of what constitutes effective talk in your subject area.
Features of Good Practice:
 Discuss and agree criteria for success in advance of an oral activity or task.
 Use student observers (e.g. Socratic Discussion), observers are given specific criteria to
focus on and report back on when listening to the talk of others.
 Allow time at the end of a specific oral activity for discussion and feedback.
 Use quick pair discussions. (Think-Pair-Share)
 Use wait time to give students an opportunity to formulate a proper answer.
 Use of drama and role play to create a variety of contexts for speaking and listening
activities.
 Model language choices when adapting your speaking register for a specific audience and
purpose.
 Use flow charts, tree diagrams, pictures or timelines to help with note taking and encourage
good listening skills.
 When students give presentations they should make use of notes and prompts rather than
scripts.
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Use of visual aids or ICT to aid students’ individual presentations.
Always make the purpose of talk and audiences explicit to students and encourage them to
choose their speech accordingly.
Plan for spoken outcomes of group discussion e.g. a group presentation of a piece of
research.
Vary groupings. Use a repertoire of regrouping strategies eg. Jigsaw, snowball, listening
trios.
Encourage exploratory, hypothetical, speculative and peer and self evaluative talk.
Display key phrases to encourage and guide students on how to frame the different types
of talk.
Give students individual roles and responsibilities within groups. E.g. a facilitator, an
observer/recorder, a chairperson, devil’s advocate etc.
Principle 2
Reading
Understanding and responding to print, electronic and multi modal texts is a part of learning in all
subject areas. New information is frequently presented to students in text.
Active reading strategies will be used in all subject areas to provide students with the skills they
need to read independently with the texts they are faced with in their school career and in the wider
community.
Features of Good Practice:
 Ensure students understand the purpose of reading a text.
 Commenting on how the choice of language in a text related to the audience and the
purpose.
 Using skimming and scanning strategies to locate information.
 Asking students to read between the lines of a text.
 Asking students to make predictions based on evidence from the text.
 Ensuring that the audience and purpose of a text are considered carefully.
 Use of drama to encourage visualisation and sensory responses to texts.
 Finding and interpreting patterns between texts
 Researching the social and historical context of a text..
 Developing appropriate vocabulary and expressions to talk about what students have read.
 Using mental maps or graphic organisers to record responses and to demonstrate
understanding of a text.
 Model highlighting of key words, points or phrases.
 Always check student understanding of what they read.
 Consider who will read the text (teacher, volunteer, group shared reading).
Principle 3
Writing
Students need to realise the importance of developing effective writing skills as a passport to
success, not only in school, but in the world of work and in life in general. Having the ability to
write with clarity, accuracy and creativity across a range of writing tasks will help develop
confidence and a positive self image which will serve students well in many areas of life.
Writing is required in all subjects across the curriculum and writing skills should be reinforced by all
subject teachers. Teachers should explicitly teach the conventions of the text types that they ask
students to produce in their own subject. This reinforces the work of the English department in
teaching different text types. Emphasis is placed on the audience and purpose of writing tasks that
are set so that students learn to draw on a repertoire of techniques and skills and apply them
across different writing tasks and in different subjects.
Features of Good Practice:
 Identifying audience and purpose of a given writing task giving it a real context.
 Using examples and display models of the type of text that students will be asked to write.
 Shared style of models of different types of writing.
 Annotating key features.
 Listing conventions of the text type that students will produce.
 Modelling the writing process and allow students time to plan writing.
 Teach different planning strategies. Eg. Brainstorms, mindmaps, flow charts, diagrams
etc.
 Composing writing in pairs or groups.
 Using scaffolding and writing frames.
 Using Assessment for Learning strategies to involve students in assessing their own and
others writing against specified criteria in your subject.
 Writing for purposes and contexts beyond the classroom in order to incorporate Functional
Skills.
 Using ICT and Multi Media systems to support and enhance their writing.
Roles and Responsibilities:
SLT (Mrs Alfaro)
 To have overall responsibility for the delivery of the school’s Literacy Policy.
 To facilitate opportunities for CPD about literacy issues.
 To support the Literacy Co-ordinator’s literacy initiatives and their monitoring of
departments’ implementation of the Literacy Policy though link meetings.
 To monitor progress in the school’s Reading Recovery Programme.
 To promote the development of Primary Literacy links.
 To monitor and evaluate the literacy strategies being used in departments and across the
whole school eg Literacy cross curricular targets.
 To promote the use of reading ages as key data to inform student profiles.
Literacy and Reading Across the Curriculum Co-ordinator
 To plan for and promote active involvement of all subject areas in the development of
literacy and reading in our students especially the development of reading for pleasure.
 To liaise with SLT in the planning, implementation and monitoring of literacy strategies in
subject areas.
 To promote enrichment activities designed to further literacy development outside of the
classroom; DEAR Day, World Book Day, Tutor book boxes, competitions etc.
 To lead CPD/Focus groups on practical ways to develop good literacy practice in subject
areas.
 To liaise with the English Department , The Link, Director of Learning to ensure a coherent
approach to developing literacy skills.
 To keep departments up to date with new developments by distribution of relevant
documentation.
 To provide support and advice for colleagues who are less confident in tackling literacy
issues.
 To attend relevant meetings and courses and liaise with local and national organisations.
 To produce publicity material about literacy and reading initiatives for the school website,
parents and students.
Subject Leader of English
 To promote the development of reading, writing and speaking and listening skills in the
English curriculum.
 To produce schemes of work which build in progression in these skills from primary
transition through all key stages.
 To provide enrichment activities which develop all aspects of literacy in students of all
abilities in and out of the English classroom.
 To liaise with SENCO, the LAC Co-ordinator and others to provide timely intervention for
students who lag behind in literacy development.
 To ensure all students have clear literacy targets which are transferrable across the
curriculum.
Subject Leaders
 To ensure that “subject specific literacy” is clearly identified and explicitly taught in schemes
of work and that there is progression through the key stages.
 To monitor the work of the department with regard to the inclusion of subject specific
literacy strategies in lesson planning.
 To encourage the use of models of good practice e.g. modelling and close collaboration
between colleagues in order to promote literacy developments.
 To ensure that someone from the department attends literacy focus group meetings and
disseminates relevant information to the department.
 To use available assessment data to identify appropriate literacy strategies.
 To ensure colleagues in departments are aware of and address each student's cross
curricular literacy targets.
SENCO
 To screen, plan and monitor literacy intervention in statemented students and students with
diagnosed literacy issues.
HLTA - Literacy
 To implement at a strategic level the delivery and monitoring of the SRA Reading Recovery
Programme.
Data Manager
 To liaise with key personnel involved in literacy development providing relevant data to
monitor and track impact of literacy initiatives.
Teaching/Associate Staff
 To ensure that they are familiar with the specific literacy demands of their subject and to
ensure sufficient coverage of these skills in their lesson planning.
 To use the agreed strategies from the literacy policy to develop Speaking and Listening,
Reading and Writing skills that are transferable.
 To be able to identify a student’s literacy strengths and weaknesses through using all data
available and know how to build on these in order to promote student progress.
 To report on students’ standards of literacy in their subject at progress review meetings, as
appropriate.
 To use the school’s Green Pen Policy to promote proofreading and accuracy.
 To use literacy marking codes in their subject.
 To be aware of and address when marking each student's cross curricular literacy targets.
Monitoring and Evaluation
Will monitor the progress of the policy implementation using a range of approaches.
Reviews to take place termly via meeting with SLT link.
Possible Evidence bases are:
Assessment Data
Lesson Observation
Work Scrutiny
Scrutiny of development plans
Meetings
Sampling of departmental schemes
Student interviews
Sharing of good practice.
More guidance about different strategies which can be used to develop Literacy skills in
your subject area is available from Mrs Alfaro, SLT Literacy Responsibility/Ms Burnup,
Literacy Across the Curriculum Co-ordinator.
Workload Impact Assessment Checklist
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The school will produce an annual directed time calendar to monitor workload and working
hours.
This policy is consistent with teachers’ contractual entitlements.
This policy and its related procedures were introduced following full and proper consultation.
This policy has specific regard in relation to workload impact; It has not added additional hours
of working and does not duplicate any other existing policies.
This policy has a one-year shelf life.
This policy will not result in any additional meetings / activities.
All staff have had proper training and support to ensure they are able to carry out the contents
of this policy without additional burden.
Issued on behalf of the Governing Body by:-
Chair of Governors
Reviewed: May 2015
To be reviewed: May 2016
WHO CONTRIBUTES TO THE
DEVELOPMENT OF LITERACY IN OUR STUDENTS?

PARENTS/CARERS
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WHOLE SCHOOL LITERACY RESPONSIBILITY
Mrs L Alfaro - Deputy Headteacher
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LITERACY PROGRESS IN STATEMENTED STUDENT/SCREENING/ ASSESSMENT/
WITHDRAWAL/IN CLASS SUPPORT/MONITORING LITERACY PROGRESS IN ALL
STATEMENTED STUDENTS
School SENCO
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LITERACY ACROSS THE CURRICULUM
Ms K Burnup - Science Department
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LITERACY AND THE ENGLISH CURRICULUM
Mrs P Proctor - Subject Leader of English
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LITERACY INTERVENTION IN ENGLISH CLASSES
Mrs P Harvey - English teacher/SEN specialist
English teachers providing support in Foundation classes
STA’s in class support
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LITERACY INTERVENTION OUTSIDE ENGLISH CLASSES
STA’s in class support across the curriculum
Learning Mentors - targeted individual small group Literacy intervention
Mrs K Bell - HLTA Literacy intervention/withdrawal/in class support/co-ordinating the school’s
SRA Reading Recovery Programme/intervention with students with Dyslexia
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DATA MANAGER
To make accessible to staff all relevant data pertaining to student progress and to be involved
in ongoing CPD around interpreting data.
These are the key personnel involved in progressing the Literacy Skills of our students, particularly
working with those students with delays in their literacy development. However the development of
literacy in all our students is the responsibility of all adults who work with them.