“It is what you read when you don’t have to that determines what you will be when you can’t help it.” — Oscar Wilde

What is Literacy?

Literacy, the ability to read, understand and use information, is vital to the success of individuals in both their career and their quality of life.
There are four strands of literacy:

• speaking
• listening
• reading
• writing

Why is literacy important?

Literacy is fundamental for learning in school.  Strong literacy skills are closely linked to the probability of having a good job, a good wage, and access to training opportunities.

At St Clere’s we aim to develop our students’ literacy to provide them with the lifelong skills to be able to communicate and create, to articulate their ideas, understand and interpret the ideas of others.

We believe that literacy begins with reading.  At the heart of our literacy strategy is ‘reading for pleasure’. We expect all of our students to read in their own time and to bring their current reading book to school every day.  Most importantly, we talk to our students about what they are reading and what we are reading.  Having adults as literacy role models is essential to a child’s development.  We also provide reading recommendations for our students and their parents, with a wide selection of books to extend reading choices and enjoyment.  Please see the ‘Recommended Reads’ link below for more details.

When students are competent readers, they will be great writers.  Writing also runs through our literacy learning.  We hold regular writing competitions to promote writing and we believe that it is every teacher’s responsibility to develop their students’ writing ability.

Speaking and listening aids the development of both reading and writing and is in itself incredibly important.  As such, we teach speaking and listening skills explicitly and work with Jack Petchey to run a range of highly successful speaking events.

Useful Links:

• Literacy Policy
• Recommended Reads