Literacy Coordinator: Miss R Beckett
At Parkhall Integrated College we believe that literacy is an essential life skill for maximising our students’ academic achievement, employability, and life experiences. Our vision is to for all our students to speak articulately, read and write proficiently and for us to promote high-standards of literacy which enable all our students to flourish in society. We run a number of different literacy programmes which include:
Book Buddies: Sixth-form literacy mentors complete a paired reading programme with selected students. Each literacy mentor completes a reading record with each student and the student’s reading age is tested again at the end of this termly programme.
One-to-One support: In key stage 3 we partner with a company called 'Thinking Reading' to facilitate targeted one-to-one support of students. The school uses the data from standardised tests to identify, and then track and monitor this literacy support.
Sparx Reader: Parkhall Integrated College has a subscription to Sparx Reader. Sparx Reader is a reading, comprehension and vocabularly programme that gets all young people reading regularly to help improve their literacy.
Reading in registration time: At Parkhall Integrated College we have a developing reading culture in registration time in which we focus on reading for pleasure.
The Library: We have functional and highly resourced space for students to access before school, during break, lunch and after school. The Library is central to what we do to promote literacy across the college.
Literacy calendar: Across the academic year we run a number of different events focused on reading in order to encourage students to expand their literary experiences. These include Roald Dahl Day, The Shakespeare Trail, National Poetry Day and World Book Day, to name just a few.
Creative writing club: We run a creative writing club during lunch each week. This club allows students to meet in a creative and inspiring environment where they can let their imaginations run wild on the page.
Creative writing competitions: We love having the competitive edge in Parkhall Integrated College and that even comes into our creative writing. Across the year academic students have the opportunity to enter a range of creative writing, poetry and even non-fiction writing competitions. This has resulted in over 300 of our students from a range of classes and year groups being published.
Charity Readathons: We hold two readathons across the school year. The first is Read for Good which helps to supply books to children undergoing treatment in hospital. Secondly, in the summer term we support the Cancer Fund for Children through their readathon, Read On, across all key stage 3 students.
Bridge: At key stage 5 we work in partnership with the Royal Literary Fund to run a full day workshop with sixth-form students teaching them the vital skills needed to write in an academic style. This helps our students with improving their assignments, exam responses and university applications.
