Our Community - Our Future

Lifelong Literacy

My blog is a day earlier than usual this week given the fact that students are not in school tomorrow, and return to school on Tuesday 6th December.

Staff are taking part in training tomorrow in support of our ambitious ‘Lifelong Literacy’ plan, a concerted three year project that will transform our school offer and make sure that every young person completes their time at MHS being fully literate. We aim to create fluent and passionate readers who benefit from a broad and deep vocabulary, confident speakers and talented writers. These skills are right up there as the most important skills anyone can possess, and we are determined to give this important work our full attention until we get it right.

The first year of the plan has been dedicated to reading and vocabulary, and we have already made some great strides in improving the one to one support for young people who have not yet learnt to read fluently. This is of course so important for study at secondary school, and a basic entitlement for all people. Secondly we have been making a concerted effort to really focus on core vocabulary in every subject, from English through to Maths. Teachers have embraced this idea and now barely a day goes by without me seeing a class unpicking the origin and make up of words, helping students to understand their meaning and spot patterns between words in completely different subjects. This exciting work is already having an impact, with students growing more and more confident in decoding and understanding ‘difficult’ words themselves, building independence and a great understanding of how all learning is connected together through language.

We’re not even a term into a minimum nine-term project, but so far the Lifelong Literacy plan is proving invaluable.

Have a great weekend,

Joe Barker

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Our Community - Our Future
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Marple Hall School
Hill Top Drive
Marple
Stockport SK6 6LB Headteacher: Mr Joe Barker
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Tel: 0161 427 7966
Fax: 0161 426 0931
Email: info@marplehall.stockport.sch.uk
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