Literacy and Numeracy

Literacy and Numeracy are key blocks for students to be successful at school and beyond, be it further education or the workplace. Without these key skills students will find it difficult to access the curriculum, therefore limiting their future life chances. We firmly believe that without these skills, students will not be successful.

At the Radcliffe School we have a wide range of assessments and programmes to help support students in both catching up, or maintaining their reading or numeracy ages as they progress through the school.

Numeracy and Literacy Premium Catch Up Funding.

Catch up funding for 2018/19 was £13,000

The funding was spent on a range of initiatives and resources including:

  • Numeracy and Literacy Co-ordinators

  • Reading Programmes

  • Summer School Activities

  • Literacy and Numeracy diagnostic and testing software

  • Targeted tutorial resources

  • Reading Books

Numeracy and Literacy Premium Catch Up Funding.

Literacy

  • 22 (11%) of year 7 students in 2018-2019 did not meet the national expected reading level at Key Stage 2. 16 of these students (69%) had a reading age below ten years old.

  • 2 students in Year 8 remained on the premium catch up list as they continued to work below their estimates. Both of these students started the year with a reading age of below ten years old.

These students, as well as other students with reading ages below their chronological age, received different interventions throughout the year including:

  • A transition programme from Year 6 to year 7 which included shared teaching with the primary schools and moderation of work and a week long summer school.

  • A weekly small group intervention programme led by a premium catch up coordinator.

  • Paired reading sessions for students with a reading age of below 10 years old with Key Stage 5 students coordinated by The Learning Hub Manager.

  • Small group or 1:1 reading sessions with staff.

  • Quality first class teaching from and English lead practitioner with additional TA support in the classroom.

  • Weekly interventions using an online Literacy intervention programme.

  • Enhanced Literacy support on a cross curricular level shared via Literacy.

Impact of the premium catch up interventions:

  • 100% of students who attended the summer school programme said it prepared them for school and they felt more confident about starting secondary school.

  • 15 of the 24 premium catch up students in Year 7 improved their reading age over the course of the year with 12 of these students increasing their reading age by over one year.

  • 14 of the above 15 students were students who had started the year with a reading age of below ten years old.

  • The average reading age of all premium catch up students who took part in reading interventions increased by 1 year 1 month over the course of the year.

  • The average reading age of all Year 7 Students who took part in reading interventions increased by 1year 6 months over the course of the year.

  • The average reading age of all Year 8 students who took part in reading interventions increased by 1 year 10 months over the course of the year.

  • 19 of the 24 Year 7 premium catch up students were on course to meet their estimated grade in English with 4 working towards exceeding their estimated grade.

Numeracy

In year 7, 61 students had a Numeracy age of below 10 in September 2018. These students then went on to receive a range of different interventions throughout an 8 month period, including:

  • Quality first teaching from Maths teachers, with additional TA support in the classroom

  • Numeracy based lessons with the classroom

  • Enhanced Numeracy support on a cross curricular level

  • MyMaths / Active learn numeracy activities

Impact of the premium catch up sessions:

  • 100% of students improved their numeracy age

  • The Year 7’s who took part in the paired interventions raised their numeracy age on average by 14 months

  • The Year 8’s who took part in the paired interventions also raised their numeracy ages by 37 months

There are a wide range of resources available to help support your child in the development of their literacy and numeracy skills, both on the internet and within school. If you need any support please do not hesitate to contact your child’s Form Tutor for further help. We would encourage you to read with your child at least once a day, be it a magazine or newspaper article or a reading book; something that they enjoy. It doesn’t need to be for very long, but it is important that it is regular. We have found that this can make the single most difference to their literacy skills and confidence.