Literacy

At the start of the Autumn Term, all Year 7 students are tested on their reading skills.  This baseline assessment provides a standardised score and a reading age, that helps in determining the students who will be offered additional literacy support throughout Key Stage 3.  At any one time, usually between 20 and 30 students at Key Stage 3 access our literacy intervention programmes. The focus/resources used during literacy support lessons include:

• Fresh Start (Read Write Inc) – a cumulative structured phonics programme
• Grammar practice
• Reading for meaning, including inferential comprehension
• Writing skills
• Handwriting
• Spelling skills

Students are regularly tested to monitor progress and to ensure that the level and type of interventions remains appropriate.

Numeracy

When a student has been identified as requiring additional numeracy support, we provide a tailored programme based on a three-tier classification by level of need.  Small group work and a less formal setting help weaker students to feel more confident, motivated and engaged, whilst the student groups are carefully chosen to ensure they build relationships whilst remaining focussed.

For those who need a less formal programme of intervention, we use formative assessment to identify gaps in curriculum knowledge, then allocate personalised resources to support accelerated progress.

Specifically for our Looked-After and Previously Looked-After children, we run a slightly different numeracy intervention programme. Those with a lower level of need but who could still benefit from extra support in maths are offered a motivational and fun approach to improving numeracy which can be administered easily in tutor time, once or twice per week.