Language and Literacy
The limits of my language are the limits of my world’
(Ludwig Wittgenstein)
‘You cannot build your vocabulary unless you meet new words, and to meet
them you must read’
(Mark Peploe and Bernado Bertolucci)
‘Language and literacy skills provide students with the fundamental building blocks not just for academic success, but for fulfilling careers and rewarding lives.’
(Education Endowment Foundation)
Language and Literacy is included as one of Glyns’ Learning and Teaching 7 principles because of the fundamental role language and literacy play in the quality of education, in every subject. Words are the first, and most fundamental components of knowledge. We cannot begin to think about or understand anything without them.
Vocabulary is a crucial area of prior knowledge, which governs what can be learnt. It is required for and built by reading. Reading deepens understanding by building increasingly rich and well connected ideas.
An increase in the confident use of academic language supports comprehension and enjoyment of a range of texts and is crucial to develop an ‘academic register’. A voice which articulates academic understanding, which is different to our everyday speech. It must be taught and rehearsed through oracy and developed in writing. Improving our academic voice has been shown to lead to gains in all subjects, including Maths and Science (Jay et al., 2017). It also boosts confidence and in turn can improve attitudes to learning and reduce anxiety (Gorard et al., 2015).
Glyn School’s Language and Literacy Policy draws directly from the EEF’s research. Foremostly, it adopts a disciplinary literacy approach to improving the quality of our Language and Literacy curriculum. “By attending to the literary demands of their subjects, teachers increase their pupils’ chance of success in their subjects.” (EEF Guidance Report)
This approach is especially important in secondary education, when the language and literacy demands increase sharply. “Students in Year 7 must adjust to being taught by a range of teachers - often undertrained in the literacy demands of their subject - using a range of new types of texts, which are often dense and more technical than those encountered in primary school.” These demands do not plateau, but underpin progression throughout the curriculum up to Key Stage Five.
Our school has launched a two year policy to ensure that language and literacy underpin a quality education for all students.
Please read our Language and Literacy policy, which can be found in our Learning and Teaching Policies and Documentation section:
