Literacy at Chelmer Valley

Literacy Coordinator: Mrs K Cook

Literacy at Chelmer

At Chelmer Valley language is crucial to the development of thought. Through language, learners explore their world and their views of it. Speaking and listening, reading and writing are therefore inseparable, interdependent and of equal importance. Literacy is taught as an integral part of the whole school curriculum and holds a key position as such.

Teaching and learning styles

All students learn differently and in the teaching of Literacy we make maximum use of a variety of learning styles and a range of tasks to ensure that students have a broad range of experiences.  

Tutor Literacy Scheme

During tutor time literacy strategies are taught from Year 7 to Year 11 with varying focuses for every group. All KS3 classes have silent reading books to support those students who have forgotten their own so that no time is wasted. The library is visited during the year by all Year 7 classes and competitions for every year group are run to engage the students with Literacy. Last year the school even published a Short story and Poetry book from student's work as a whole school initiative.  

Example of Tutor programme

For example the Year 7 tutor groups focus on spelling strategies for the year. students are taught a variety of spelling strategies and are encouraged to use the ‘Look, Cover, Say, Write, Check’ method when learning to spell a new word. Each classroom has a set of dictionaries and many subject areas display lists of key vocabulary for topic areas. All groups learn weekly spelling lists connected by a string or blend of letters, or a spelling rule.  

Year 7 and Year 8 student booklets are regarded as part of their equipment for school– please download them to support this work at home.

Year 7 – Wordpower book (please click on the pdf document below)

Year 8 – Sentences book (please click on the pdf document below)  

Monitoring

Monitoring takes place within the school system such as opportunities to observe tutor time, lessons, viewing student's work and analysing data. The information from these processes is collated and informs teachers within the school as well as students who often are given literacy themed targets in their books.

 

Please click on the pdf document below for the Literacy Policy.