Literacy
At Robert Clack reading is of the utmost importance. We passionately believe that reading for pleasure helps students to improve their literacy levels and future life chances.
At Robert Clack we have made reading a whole school priority. We understand that reading is the gateway to success in every part of the school curriculum. Teachers at Robert Clack work tirelessly to ensure students get the very best reading instruction in all lessons of the curriculum by following the FASE Reading method. This means every pupil across the three sites receives the same reading experience in all lessons.
At KS3 we ensure that students are supported with specialised reading lessons in the library on Lymington Fields, Green Lane and Gosfield Road.
At Robert Clack we believe ‘everyone is a teacher of literacy’ and it is our aim to develop reading, writing and oracy in every subject. Our overarching aim is to encourage positivity, enthusiasm, creativity, confidence and independence in all of our students through embedding literacy in all that we do.
Our literacy interventions team have worked hard alongside classroom teachers to ensure students are supported through a series of targeted and focused intervention - especially at KS3. These include reading mentors where Year 7 students read with Year 10 students every week, 1:1 and 1:3 reading groups led by members of our trained and dedicated literacy team based in the school libraries and Reading Logs where we seek to work hand in hand with parents and carers at home to help raise literacy levels in those that need it the most.
We also undertake whole school literacy initiatives such as
ClackAudible. This is where different teachers and students from across the schools read extracts from carefully chosen books we have chosen to showcase as our book of the week. This is to encourage a love of reading and introduce our students to a variety of stories they may like to read and can find a copy of in every Robert Clack library. Successful engagement with ClackAudible can also earn students interform points in form time. As well as all this every student at Robert Clack is expected to carry a reading book with them at all times and every child is expected to read for 20 minutes every day.
The school has a robust
literacy policy which is embedded into the schools teaching and learning policy.
We provide a transition assembly for all new Year 7 students in September with well-known children’s author Dan Freedman. It is through this work we have also been awarded the CLIP Reading for Pleasure Award.
We also hold
Champion School Status through Renaissance Learning, work closely with the
National Literacy Trust and have featured in the
Football Reading Case Study and featured in the article
Our Strategic Approach to Literacy. We have also worked with the Prince's Teaching Institute looking closely at vocabulary enhancement and development and the Leadership project looking at building a culture of whole school literacy. We have received a PTI mark in both of these areas.
Library
Robert Clack has three excellently run and well stocked libraries on Green Lane, Gosfield Road and Lymington Fields. The literacy team are keen to ensure the books we offer in the libraries are up to date and relevant to what our students want to read.
Students are able to take out two books at a time and they are responsible for looking after them and paying any fines for late or lost books.
We use Accelerated Reader to track students' reading and it forms an individualised online reading record for each student which we can share with you at home. More details of this will be sent to you as your child starts Year 7.
The system allows students to take quizzes on the books they have read and it will count the number of words that they have read. When students read over a million words they are celebrated in assembly and receive a special treat at the end of the year! In each lesson students are individually rewarded for passing their quizzes with merit marks and interform points. Each term there are gift vouchers on offer too!
The Robert Clack libraries are open to all students at lunchtimes and after school. It is a place where students can read and quiz their books, complete homework and enjoy a quiet space. Our amazing librarians are experts in their field and are ready to help all students find exactly the book they need so they can start their journey of discovery through reading as they enter secondary school and for so many years beyond that too.
Here are some useful links: