At HASJW, we promote the values of 'WORD' skills: Writing, Oracy, Reading and Development of vocab

 

The importance of Writing

As you can see from our (attached) Literacy policy, we work hard to support students with a range of strategies to improve their writing.

In May 2023, the Harris Federation audited our literacy provision, meeting staff, observing lessons and analysing reading age test data. The audit report said:

"Literacy development, including disciplinary literacy, has been an area of focus for several years at the academy which is evidenced by the effective embedding of a wide range of literacy strategies across the curriculum. Training has focused on breaking down complex writing tasks combining writing instruction with reading and exposing the students to appropriately challenging academic texts."

The importance of Oracy

Alongside various Oracy competitions, Debate Club and Debate Mate, our teachers are trained to support the development of students' oracy skills.  Please, see (attached) our Oracy policy.

In July 2023, our students competed in a competition with other Harris schools. The judges reported:

Both speeches were amazing: Mundhir was told he could be a professional speech writer in the judges' feedback, and Keyaan's was a really inspirational and moving speech.

In July 2024, our students competed in a competition with other Harris schools. The judges reported:

We are very proud of Amira as she came second (out of 27) in the Harris Speak out challenge organised by Harris Girls Academy East Dulwich. Amira's speech was on gender equality and was praised for her thoughtful and eloquent speech and for delivering it without notes. Mohammed was clearly the audience's favourite, he came 4th (of 27) with special mentions from the judges. They loved how entertaining and confident he was.

 

The importance of Reading

Reading each night is an important aspect of educational success. Indeed, research has proven that reading enjoyment is more important for children's educational success than any other factor (OECD, 2002).  For this reason, the school routinely tests students’ reading age. 

To improve their reading further, students must read a book every night for at least 30 minutes.  They should aim to finish a book of their choice every two weeks.  It is very important that you encourage them to do so.  All students have access to a range of challenging and age-appropriate books to borrow in the school library. 

All students in Year 7-10 have silent reading once a week in tutor time, in addition to Literacy focused tutor time activities once a week.

All 6th form students have access to the book box in the 6th form LC for a selection of reading, as well as routine visits to their lessons from our library team, who bring books relevant to their subjects to class for borrowing.  All Year 12 students are allocated 'Careers Reading Groups' (once a week, during tutor time), in which they read and discuss articles related to their future career interests.

In May 2023, the Harris Federation audited our literacy provision, meeting staff, observing lessons and analysing reading age test data. The audit report said:

"The Leaders of Literacy have put in place a range of initiatives to develop a love of reading amongst students. The library is a bright and attractive space."

Reading age tests (Years 7-11):

HASJW uses a programme called NGRT to test students' reading age (More information is available here).  The test is made up of two parts: sentence completion (which measures decoding with some element of comprehension); and passage comprehension (which measures a range of comprehension skills of increasing difficulty). 

Students who read routinely for pleasure often have reading ages higher than their actual age.  Some students have reading ages lower than their actual age (e.g. they might be 14 years old but have a reading age of 13, because their language skills are under-developed.)  These students receive extra support in school.  Please, see attached document on our Literacy Interventions for these students.

In May 2023, the Harris Federation audited our literacy provision. The audit report said:

"Leaders of Literacy have worked hard and considered a range of factors when developing the academy wide approach to literacy. NGRT tests show that around 80% of students have an average or better score and the mean standard age score for this group is significantly higher than the national average."

Accelerated Reader (Years 7-10):

To support students’ reading skills we use a programme called Renaissance Place (Accelerated Reader), which allows students to take quizzes on books they have read.  Their English teacher will then offer advice on what they might read next. This program has a special feature called Renaissance Home Connect, which your child and you can access outside of school from any computer with an Internet connection. You can log in to Renaissance Home Connect from any computer with an Internet connection and compatible browser. Their usernames and passwords can be found in their planners.

For a list of compatible browsers, please click here.

If you'd like to receive emails showing your student's quiz or test results, click the Email Setup link in Renaissance Home Connect and follow the directions. To be sure these emails reach your inbox, add homeconnectautodelivery@renlearnrp.com to your address book. 

Renaissance says...

"According to research, children who read for at least 25 minutes a day see the greatest gains." Compare this with the average 'minutes per day' score of HASJW students this month...

 

Development of vocab:

Bedrock is a teaching tool/intervention.  It teaches students new vocabulary. Students should use Bedrock every Monday/Wednesday/Friday evening, as part of their homework.  However, they are able to complete tasks every day including weekends, if they wish to do so.  Students have already been provided with the usernames and passwords.  Access codes are also available for parents so that they can also track and monitor the progress of their child. These are stuck into student planners. If you cannot find the stickers in their planners, you can get these access codes by emailing dilan.kulekci@harrisstjohnswood.org.uk. 

In February 2024, we received this email from the makers of Bedrock: 

“I wanted to reach out and firstly to say congratulations [...] Not only are you very near the top of the Harris rankings, but also international ones too - it's truly amazing!” 

In March 2024, we received this email from the makers of Bedrock: 

“On behalf of Bedrock Learning, I wanted to pass on my heartfelt congratulations for your impressive learner engagement in February. On average, pupils learned 49 words each [in February] and made 72% of progress in terms of words learned.” 

In June 2024, we received this from the makers of Bedrock:

"On behalf of Bedrock Learning, I wanted to pass on my heartfelt congratulations for having taught the highest number of tier 2 words per learner across the federation."

Targeted support (Years 7-13):

Depending on the reading age of students and their needs, they may be invited to attend some of the following. Please, see attached document on 'Literacy Interventions Overview' for evaluation of the impact of these interventions, as well as details of how staff are trained to deliver this support and how students are selected.

• 'Books and Biscuits': Tuesday and Wednesday lunchtime (voluntary attendance: all welcome)
• 'Literacy Support Groups': Monday, 3.50-4.40PM (Students are grouped according to whether their need relates to comprehension, phonics, EAL, conversation-making)
• EAL A & B support intervention: timetabled for students in groups throughout the week
• Our Key Stage 3 and Year 12 reading mentors programme: Tuesday tutor time
• Phonics focused Year 8 class - This intervention takes place during the first 20 minutes of English lessons. We ensure these students do not miss out on the English curriculum as a consequence: they study the same curriculum as all other students in the remaining 40 minutes of the lesson with the guidance of one of our most experienced English teachers, Ms Kulecki, and Ms Osman, our Literacy LSA. 
• Literacy Support focused Year 7 class - Students are grouped according to whether their need relates to comprehension, phonics, EAL).  This intervention takes place during the first 20 minutes of English lessons.  We ensure these students do not miss out on the English curriculum as a consequence: they study the same curriculum as all other students in the remaining 40 minutes of the lesson with the support of 4 adults in the room - this allows for intense support during coverage of our English curriculum.
• Creative Writing club and Debate Club (Y7-11)- Wednesday lunchtime and 3.50-4.30PM (voluntary attendance: all welcome)
• Spelling Bee (Y7) - termly events 
• Debate Mate (Y7-10) - Wednesday, 4-5PM
• 6th form Oracy (Y12-13) - student run societies, including Medicine-Dentistry Society, and the process of EPQ presentations offer 6th form students the chance to develop their oracy skills.  In addition, Y12 have a guest speakers model oracy skills every Friday, period 5.
• Year 12 Careers Reading groups - students read and discuss articles related to their future careers during tutor time once a week.

Our provision of targeted support, using Phonics and Comprehesion resources developed by Ruth Miskin's Fresh Start programme, was reviewed in May 2024. On the back of that, our consultant from Fresh Start sent us an email saying:

"Your [Fresh Start teachers] team are dedicated and have strong relationships with the students.  We observed calm lessons with much participation."