Park Academy West London promotes learning for life and every student brings valuable experiences and strengths to our school. We build on these by offering Literacy initiatives which are stimulating, accessible and differentiated to meet the needs of all students. Literacy plays an important role in everything that we do, and is the vehicle for communicating with the world.
What is literacy?
Literacy is the ‘language of learning’ and encompasses the areas of Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening, enabling students to:
- Make extended, independent contributions that develop ideas in depth.
- Make purposeful presentations that allow them to speak with authority on significant subjects.
- Engage with texts that challenge preconceptions and develop understanding.
- Experiment with language and explore different ways of discovering and shaping their own meanings.
- Use writing as a means of reflecting on and exploring a range of views and perspectives on the world.
How is literacy developed at Park Academy?
Here at Park Academy, Literacy is the responsibility of every teacher; all teachers will provide opportunities for students to read, write, speak and listen within their subjects. Literacy is key to enhancing the skills taught across the curriculum and promoting learning across all subjects. Our goal is to empower every child to fulfil their potential by developing our students’ abilities within Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening.
We strongly encourage the development of our students’ literacy to ensure they can:
- use a wide, interesting and appropriate vocabulary in speech and writing
- organise their thinking and to communicate the results effectively both orally and in writing
- have sound comprehension skills and be able to reorganise, infer, evaluate and appreciate a range of texts
- plan, draft, revise and edit their own writing
- use writing to consolidate and develop thinking.
Literacy is key in all aspects of the curriculum as well as extra curricular activities. Opportunities to develop literacy include:
- DEAR (Drop Everything and Read)
- AM time Literacy sessions
- Trust Reading book
- ATL literacy focus
- Fresh Start
- Literacy Competitions
- Book Clubs
- BookFlix – Recommended reads
Useful Information for Parents
Parents and carers play an important role in developing your child’s literacy and this can be done in many ways:
- Look at your child’s books regularly and review learning with them.
- Ask open questions to encourage your child to revise and review key ideas.
- Help with regular spelling practice; review keywords from a range of subjects. Encourage students to look up words they don’t know in a dictionary.
- Listen to and read to your child for at least 10 minutes on a daily basis. You can also download audio versions of many of the texts studied.
- Read books and plays that are bring taught across a range of subjects; talk together about the language and key concepts.
- Give students access to a range of literature such as magazines, recipes, newspaper articles and books.
- Promote writing, even if it’s short notes, flashcards or a shopping list.
- Look at the language of adverts and discuss the methods used by promoters/sellers.
- Encourage reading for pleasure!