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Reading & Literacy

At Arbour Academy, we see learning to read and engaging with books as the right of every student. We strive to create a culture of reading in our school and to promote the joy and benefits of reading for all of our learners.

Whilst some of our students face barriers in the process of learning to read, it is our duty to support learners to overcome those barriers and to learn to decode and understand the written word. We also see it as our duty, to inspire our learners to see the value in reading. Many learners will need support in finding a genre, author or style of writing which they enjoy and it is our job to help them, whilst broadening learners’ interests and exposing them to new literature.

Reading opens opportunities and opportunities increase life experiences

World Book day is a joyous occasion and an important focal point in Arbour to launch new reading initiatives. Staff and pupils dress up as characters from books, take part in competitions and engage with range of different of original activities which change annually.

We don’t think having fun with books and reading should be restricted to primary school -we do things differently here!

In addition to World Book Day, we have an annual programme of enrichment activities to promote reading and are continually reviewing our ideas and looking for new opportunities to engage our learners.

The annual programme includes:

  • October- National Poetry Day in to celebrate the joy of reading poetry
  • November - A Visit to Chethams’ Library to support reading Gothic literature.
  • November – visit to the theatre to see A Christmas Carol
  • December - Jolabokaflot – Celebrating the Icelandic tradition of gifting a book on Christmas Eve.
  • February - Author visit to run a creative writing workshop for learners.
  • March - Sadie Massey Book Competition with the Portico Library. Learner submit a book review or a short story.
  • June - Salford Children’s Book Awards.
  • June – Manchester Libraries Festival.
  • July – Theatre visit to an outdoor production.

Why we read at Arbour?

We believe that reading is a vital skill, that supports learning across the whole curriculum. We therefore want our students to become enthusiastic, independent and reflective readers who are able to read with increasing fluency, accuracy and understanding. We understand that in life to access anything and all areas of the curriculum reading is the core skill that undervalues everything a learner needs to evolve into an independent learner for the future.

We believe it is essential to establish a consistent whole school approach to the teaching of reading by promoting a strong ethos amongst learners and staff through

a variety of opportunities to access informative and engaging texts that open up the learner’s imagination to worlds that will help develop their own future one.

We aim to ensure that our students are given opportunities to read good quality and interesting fiction and non-fiction texts, from around the world and diverse communities to broaden their horizons of the wider world.

We create a stimulating learning environment where reading materials are attractively presented by enthusiastic and knowledgeable staff who keep up-to-date with current literature and newspapers.

How and What We Read

Here at Arbour Academy our intent is to promote reading for attainment, engagement, enrichment and intervention.

At KS3 our learners experience weekly 1:1 reading sessions with their English teacher or Learning Mentor. Over the school year, they are offered a selection of engaging books from different genres.

Depending on reading ability each learner is encouraged to make their way through the reading spine of Arbour’s tailor-made book bands. Every time a book is completed learners will receive a HERE award and tokens for the tuck shop. !) Once a learner has read three books from their reading band, they receive a certificate of achievement and £10.00 book voucher.

Phonics: all students will be taught phonics (if required) through dedicated 1:1 interventions using Read Write Inc intervention programme and assessed termly. It is designed to help practitioners to teach students how to decode letters and sounds and how to make meaning of the words they decode.

Shared Reading: the whole class share a text with specific reading skills or features of differing genre being taught. This will be weekly. This may be as part of a lesson, other than English

Individual Reading: students read age appropriate reading books, magazines, local newspapers and First News. This may be a physical reading book, or an online book

(E-readers being currently set-up). Every student will read with an adult (Learning Mentor) every week.

Reading Aloud: students are encouraged to read aloud to a variety of audiences.

Class Reader: the teacher reads aloud reading material that is age appropriate and of interest to the students. This will happen on a Friday with different texts each term for KS3 and KS4.

Library: All learners are encouraged to utilise our libraries, loan books and update them regularly.

Learners have daily access to our school library and are taken to the library regularly by members of staff to browse the books. When learners arrive at the school as part of their induction they will be taken to the school library by their English teacher to discuss their reading journey and choose a book which matches their reading ability.

We also organise termly visits to the Salford Schools Library Service to borrow new books and students are encouraged to seek advice from the librarians who are experts in children’s literature to receive suggestions about new books and books which would interest and engage them.

Reading Resources: Our reading resources are updated regularly in order to provide a language rich environment, and keep reading fresh and exciting. Students have an input into what new books are bought for the library. We ensure students are taken to a book shop at least once a year to help select new books for the library. We usually visit Waterstones on Deansgate on WBD for a guided tour of the shop and to speak to a book seller.

The Salford Book Awards: In partnership with the Salford Education Library Service, Arbour Academy are actively involved in The Salford Children’s Book Awards, which encourages our learners to read nominated books and vote for their favourite. Our staff and learners are extremely excited to be attending the awards ceremony later in the year!