At St Bede’s & Byron, we know that students in our care require strong communication and effective knowledge of literacy in order to be successful in many aspects of their lives. Therefore, we have a specific, whole school approach to the teaching of literacy and communication, SOAR; Spelling, Oracy And Reading.
Our different SOAR initiatives include:
Spelling
- Words of the Week – each week, in every subject from Year 7 to Year 13, pieces of tier 2 (frequent complex) and tier 3 (specific complex) vocabulary are taught to students. These are introduced using the evidence-informed Frayer Model and noted in glossaries at the back of every student’s book. In Years 7 to 10, students’ recall of these pieces of vocabulary are assessed weekly on a Friday morning.
- Sounds-Write phonics provision – we know that exceptional work is completed by our primary colleagues in preparing our students using synthetic, systematic phonics codes. Therefore, we have invested in ensuring that a large group of our staff are trained in Sounds-Write phonics so they can embed this knowledge and approach within their subject lessons.
Reading
- Tutor Reading (reading for pleasure) – every year group has 3 – 4 assigned texts each year from our Reading Canon. For twenty minutes each morning, students read together with their tutor group on a range of different texts aimed at widening the scope and range of texts they encounter.
- Scholarly Reading (reading for knowledge) – within subjects, teachers direct students to wider reading, such as news articles, research papers or books, that will allow them to deepen their understanding and knowledge of what they are learning within class.
- SOAR Reading Groups (reading for fluency) – every cycle, all of our Key Stage 3 (Years 7, 8 and 9) students are assessed for their reading ages. Students who show a lower than expected reading age are then further assessed to diagnose the specific area of need for that student with regards to writing. Then, for twenty minutes each morning, these students take part in groups that are targeting this specific need, led by specialist phonics trained members of staff.
- Paired Reading (reading for comprehension) – following our termly reading age assessments and diagnostic testing, students who have particlarly low levels of comprehension (whilst potentially higher levels of fluency) are offered to read alongside a Sixth Form mentor who can assist them in defining any new pieces of vocabulary or explaining the themes/storylines within a text.
- Accelerated Reading (reading for progress) – timetabled for one hour every two weeks, all Key Stage 3 students partake in a highly popular ‘reading lesson’ where they read a text independently, targeted to their bespoke reading level. Students then take quizzes after completing each book to encourage them to reflect on their reading as well as incentivising them to read as many texts as they can, further accelerating their progress and confidence.
Writing
- Write Like A… – every subject across our curriculum in Key Stage 3 has at least one piece of extended writing that is assessed every cycle (term). This allows students to apply their subject subject content with their writing skills, as well as ensuring that students are aware of the cross-curricular importance of effective writing for a range of different purposes.
Students who make excellent progress or show particular strength within areas of our SOAR programme are awarded every cycle during our SOAR Awards.
Please see below for our SOAR policy as well as some graphics and maps detailing further our provision.
