Literacy

At Lift Aylward, we believe that literacy lies at the heart of a student’s success, it is the key to empowering individuals and unlocking their critical thinking, creativity and communication, as well as improving student’s self-esteem and motivations. This is why we instil a love of reading, writing and talk, in all Aylward students. 

Literacy Aims

As an academy we aim:

• For literacy to be a central component of our entire curriculum by encouraging the transfer of literacy skills across the curriculum.

• To ensure fluency,  progression and mastery in reading and writing.

• To enhance our student’s ability to express oneself fluently and grammatically in speech (oracy).

To do this we promote and develop the following four main areas we believe are central to lifelong literacy development:

• Oracy

• Reading

• Writing

• Subject-specific vocabulary

Guided Reading

Every morning, students in Key Stage 3 start the school day in a 30-minute reading session. We foster a love of reading by judiciously selecting a wide range of age-appropriate fiction and non-fiction texts. In these sessions, students practise reading aloud, are explicitly taught vocabulary and develop comprehension skills. It is an initiative that we are proud of as a school and that both students and teachers enjoy. Examples of the booklets we use in Guided Reading can be found here: 

Reading Interventions

To support students who may be struggling with reading or have English as an Additional Language, we offer the following intervention pathways

• Ruth Miskin Literacy Phonics programme

• FlashAcademy

• Read Write Inc Fresh Start

• Lexonik Advance 

We are proud of the curriculum provision we have on offer and celebrate the impact it has had on our students’ reading outcomes and confidence.

Reading in the Curriculum

At Lift Aylward, listening, speaking, reading and writing are explicitly taught to build on the cultural capital of students: enabling them to become brave, inquisitive and independent learners able to communicate effectively and adapt language according to audience and purpose. 

We have worked collaboratively with our teachers to prioritise the three key areas to develop reading in the curriculum:

1. We expose students to age-appropriate text. 

2. We develop subject- specific vocabulary 

3. We use research-based strategies to support students’ reading comprehension skills. 

Our academic curriculum aims to challenge our students to foster independence and a love for reading.

Reading for Personal Development

Tutor time reading has become one of the most enjoyable parts of the school day. Students are engaged in reading three days a week as a group.   Our librarian has hand-selected books which are linked to themes in the personal development curriculum, where students can explore age-related issues and discuss solutions.