All staff at National are teachers of literacy. They are responsible for embedding reading support into their lessons. Teachers use a wide range of information about your child’s reading ability to employ strategic teaching approaches that support those who need additional help.

The National Academy follows a disciplinary literacy approach, explicitly teaching vocabulary, reading, writing, and academic talk within each subject. Each faculty in the school has a subject-specific strategy, tailored to the requirements of that discipline.

Every subject has identified key vocabulary that is crucial for students to access the curriculum and develop their understanding. Six key terms per subject, per half term, are explicitly taught using a range of teaching strategies. These terms can be found on the link below.

Teachers regularly check students’ understanding of key vocabulary using low-stakes quizzes.

Word of the Week: Students also engage with key terms in tutor time to consolidate their learning and make connections across subjects.

All of our classrooms have vocabulary displays to support students and encourage the use of key terminology in both writing and oracy.

Reading is at the heart of our curriculum. Every subject has planned opportunities for students to read challenging and engaging texts. Careful consideration of how to support students in accessing texts, alongside opportunities to think critically and evaluatively, underpins our lesson design.

At The National Academy, we use the reciprocal reading approach. This involves activating prior knowledge so that students can access the text through prediction, structured questioning, clarification, summarising key ideas, and making inferences.

Student oracy is developed through carefully planned questioning and structured support for subject-specific talk. Many subjects use scaffolded oracy cards to support effective debate and discussion.

Literacy is taught as a discrete subject in Year 7, led by Miss Hornbuckle. This curriculum develops students’ vocabulary, reading, and oracy, and underpins the subject-specific focus on these areas across the school.

Reading is a valued and protected activity. Students have dedicated quiet reading time built into their literacy lessons.