Literacy

Follow us on Instagram @halewoodliteracy/

Literacy is a fundamental aspect of our curriculum at Halewood Academy. We are committed to ensuring that all students regardless of their ability or socio-economic background have access to high quality teaching and learning of literacy skills that is consistent across all subject areas. We enable students to develop their vocabulary, reading and writing skills, verbal communication and resilience when faced with increasingly challenging exam specifications. 

We seek to prepare students with a vast range of transferable skills which will improve their future prospects, increase their employability and broaden their minds; equipping them to make positive contributions to society and to achieve their upmost potential during and beyond their secondary education. 

World Book Day is one of the numerous celebrations of literature and the value of reading and has become a yearly tradition with great enthusiasm and engagement from both staff and students.

Similarly, the Christmas Book Drive saw huge numbers of students excitedly unwrapping donated mystery books which they could then take home to read. 

Our after school clubs such as the Creative Writing Club, KS3 Reading club and KS4 Stretch and Challenge club have all proven to be extremely popular with students across year groups and allow budding writers and fellow book worms a forum within which to try out ideas and gain inspiration from their peers. 

One incredible achievement has been the Pride and Promises Anthology- a published anthology of poems written by staff and students which is now for sale on Amazon and has since won the ‘Innovative and Creative Literacy’ Award at the prestigious Educate Awards 2019 Ceremony. You can still buy a copy HERE.

As a school we are regularly looking for ways to empower and involve the students in literacy initiatives across school and this is shown in the form of our Literacy Ambassadors, Student Leadership Team, Peer Readers and Mentors and Student Librarians. These students all work collaboratively to promote reading and literacy throughout the student body, acting as role models to their peers.

We regularly celebrate success and creativity and use rewards to further inspire students to full engage with the ever- expanding literacy-based opportunities made available to them. 

We also promote a love of reading and literacy through trips such as those to Halewood Library with Mrs Fleming and a recent day out to see author Phil Earle speak at the Central Library in Liverpool.

Throughout the regular school day, literacy is promoted through embedded expectations such as Word of the Week, Literacy Learning Objectives and use of a range of challenging fiction and non-fiction texts across all subjects. Furthermore, all students in Years 7 and 8 are asked to complete two lessons a week on Bedrock Learning, a computer programme designed to improve their grasp of academic vocabulary. This serves as the English homework for these year groups, thereby encouraging them to spend time at home focusing on developing their literacy skills.

The staff at Halewood Academy believe in embodying the positive attitudes to literacy and reading that we hope to see in our students. As such, we have two staff sections in the Learning Resource Centre, take part in an ad-hoc staff book club, regularly share reading recommendations and display our love of reading through photographic displays of staff members 'Caught Reading!' throughout the school.