Literacy Support

The Word Attack programme, which has been in place at Shapwick School for some years, has been renamed Literacy Support as it is a more descriptive title for what the lessons do.

Under the overall umbrella of English, we use Literacy Support lessons as an opportunity to strengthen and enhance the pupils' understanding of English and improve their Literacy Skills.  As many of our pupils have missed learning opportunities or have been unable to overlearn certain aspects of Literacy, these lessons are used to reinforce the foundations of English.

In Literacy Support, we study;

Sentence structure and grammar,

Paragraphing,

Spelling of high frequency words; regular and irregular,

Sequencing,

Range of punctuation;

Reading efficiency,

Listening skills,

Comprehension,

Tenses

Students have 1 hour a week for Literacy Support.  The class groupings are kept small, especially for the weaker students.  The teachers assigned to these weaker classes have SpLD qualifications.
Weekly meetings are held with the English Department where discussions are held about the progress of our students and how best to address their needs.
Resources are kept in both parts of the school where Literacy Support is taught.

Study Skills

Are also taught to year 9s on a rota basis.  These include aspects of Planning - different strategies/skimming and scanning.
Comprehension
Note Taking
Information retrieval (Index, Bibliography + dictionary/thesaurus work)
Social competency
Fine motor skills

Individual Literacy Support

Pupils who are identified as needing additional, individual support because of poor reading/spelling age, are seen for half an hour a week.  Teachers will use a holistic approach to their learning, looking for where the pupils see their needs as well as using quantative assessments.
This may take the form of reinforcement of reading, spelling and writing and it may also include support for areas of study the pupils feel they need, for example, English topics currently being studied.

Reading Clinic

Reading clinic is held at the beginning of the day before lessons start, to provide identified pupils with the opportunity to improve fluency.  Pupils will attend for 3 mornings a week.  This may last until their fluency is seen to have improved or until the pupil decides they would like to stop.
This involves 2 members of the teaching staff.