Love Literacy : Every teacher is a Literacy teacher.

At SGS a number of strategies have been created to break down the barriers to reading, writing and com-munication.  Literacy is not an English subject. Literacy enables students to develop and gain skills to be able to read, write and communicate in life, in school, with adults, with peers and in society. It gives them confidence, a sense of well-being; a chance to access life opportunities. 

Initiatives at SGS.
During the academic year students will have the opportunity to take part in Literacy based activities across all subjects. The following outlines what goes on:

Reading

• DEAR: Drop Everything And Read. Once per term for one hour every teacher, student, non teaching staff has the pleasure of reading. It can be material from a subject area, papers, magazines, graphic novels or books. Ideally Fiction but hey.. Reading is reading.. 
• Accelerated Reader: The computer-based Accelerated Reader (AR) software provides brief comprehension quizzes that help teachers ensure each pupil is reading and, even more importantly, understanding what they read. It maintains records of books read and individual pupil goals and alerting teachers when the volume of reading or levels of comprehension do not measure up with stated goals. It fosters a culture of reading and improves outcomes for all students. A considerable amount of research shows that independent reading practice is absolutely necessary to build vocabulary, fluency, comprehension, writing, and higher order thinking skills
• Word Millionaires: Monitoring and tracking the number of words read by individuals and classes. A high level of com-petition is proved to engage and motivate readers. Individuals are awarded with a badge system—most words read.
• Book groups: Encouraging all students from 6th form to Year 6 to run their own book groups. Based on evidence from the Sutton Trust, peer tutoring is one of the most effective ways of achieving in particular groups such as PP, G&T and low level literacy. This is held at Steyning Primary school as well as the LRC.

Writing

We give feedback for Literacy in every subject:

• Spelling – to develop accurate spelling of key words
• Grammar – to develop accurate grammar
• Sentences – to develop a range of simple, compound and complex sentences.
• Punctuation: to use a range of – ? ! . - ; : “ ,
• Paragraphs : to develop accurate paragraphing

Spelling Bee

Using the American model of develop-ing spelling and accuracy in key terms. An inter form competition in which students are asked to spell a broad selection of words, usually with a varying de-gree of difficulty. Spell as many words as they can correctly and they will represent their form in a whole year group competition. The semi finalists from each year will then enter the finals in an inter year competition.

Workshops

A number of creative writing and poetry workshops have been organised; local authors take sessions with students to improve their writing and creative thinking skills. The authors have worked with a range of year groups from 7-10. The workshops aim to inspire, develop vocabulary, heighten fluency of ideas and technical skills.