Literacy & Numeracy

At Darwen Vale, we believe in the importance of developing students’ reading, writing and communication skills through high expectations and regular daily practice. We have a whole school focus on spelling, punctuation and grammar (SPAG) and every teacher takes responsibility for literacy in their subject area. A consistent approach and the repetition of these key skills have a powerful effect on student progress. We provide opportunities for students to read within the school week and we encourage parents to support this at home.

In Years 7, 8 and 9 all students take on the English Mastery programme to help support the development of their literacy skills and a whole school focus on the importance of reading ensures all our students encounter, and engage with, a wide range of fictional and non-fictional texts.

As part of our focus on reading, at Darwen Vale we endeavour to ensure that no student has a reading age that is lower than their chronological age; we have bespoke intervention programmes in place to accommodate all levels of reading ability that will push our students to their optimal outcomes.  In addition to this, we have an English academic mentor who aids the delivery of further intervention sessions across all year groups for any students who are at risk of falling below their target grade as well as Saturday classes providing additional tuition for our Key Stage 4 students in the run up to their GCSE exams.

The school community supports us in our expectations that students speak in Standard English, expressing themselves in full statements wherever possible. By working together as a learning community to build students’ literacy skills, we believe that students will have the necessary skills to be successful within their education at Darwen Vale and beyond.

 Please see our separate literacy policy to view our other methods of improving students’ literacy.