At Orchard Park, developing students' literacy is at the core of what we do: it is the key to accessing every subject. A high quality education that develops oracy and fluent written communication is not just a powerful lever for social justice but allows all students to develop culturally, emotionally, intellectually, socially and spiritually.

Our teaching and learning principles value literacy and oracy across the curriculum, foregrounding modelling, high quality explanations and visual support.

How we develop oracy

• Each morning, students in Years 7 to 9 are read to for 25 minutes during our tutor time reading programme, which models fluency and articulation as well as exposing students to a wide range of narratives, each developing their understanding of the world around them. Staff pause and provide synonyms for less familiar words.
• Students in KS3 take part in two rounds of subject specific speech sessions in each academic year, helping them to develop their confidence, their public speaking and their subject knowledge.
• Through our PSHE curriculum, students are taught how to discuss various issues affecting the lives of young people and adults, debating a range of different perspectives on nuanced situations.
• Our Year 10 students take part in the Jack Petchey Speak Out Challenge during the spring term, learning how to craft the spoken word with confidence.
• In drama, students are explicitly taught vocal skills developed by the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art on projection, pronunciation and speaking with confidence. All students in Year 7 take a LAMDA exam at the end of the school year. Orchard Park High employs a peripatetic LAMDA teacher and students can opt for individual lessons in verse and prose, acting and public speaking.
• KS3 students all participate in a daily vocabulary building programme, focussing on high-utility, academic words. 

How we develop written communication

Our approach to homework has a strong emphasis on the learning of key subject vocabulary, where students quiz themselves each night from knowledge organisers, going over key vocabulary required for their subject that term, and across the year.

• At the beginning of each lesson, this knowledge is recapped through low-stakes quizzing, helping students to retain and apply what they have learned.
• Vocabulary is explicitly taught in all lessons and tested in low-stakes quizzes and self-quizzing homework. 
• Written subjects devote substantial periods of time to silent writing, helping students to develop their ideas and writing stamina.
• Teachers regularly model excellent writing in class and split up extended writing into more manageable components so that students experience success.

How we develop reading:

• Our library is open at lunch times for students to read at their leisure.
• Students in Year 7 and 8 complete weekly reading homework using Sparx Reader.
• Our tutor time reading programme means that students in Years 7 to 9 are read to for 25 minutes in the morning each day of the week. The books we choose span time periods, contexts and cultures, providing students with windows into worlds that are different to their own.
• Students read books, tracking the line with a ruler, flat on the desk, actively engaging in the tale. 
• Staff use visualisers to model reading strategies across the curriculum. 
• Pupils are rewarded Character points for speaking to staff about what they are reading.
• Assemblies regularly refer to high quality texts from across the world and different periods of time.
• Upon entry to Orchard Park – whether this be in Year 7 or later on – all students sit an NGRT reading assessment. Students who struggle are then further tested to check their decoding abilities. If students need support with decoding, they are placed on an SSP reading intervention.