Mission Statement

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At Holly Lodge Girls’ College, it is our belief that all teachers are teachers of literacy. We are committed to developing literacy skills in all subjects across the curriculum, believing that it will support the learning of all students and raise standards in every subject.

We therefore believe that:

Literacy is a right for all pupils;

Every teacher is responsible for the development of literacy;

Literacy should be developed across all areas of the curriculum.

At Holly Lodge Girls’ College, our aim is that students are able to read with fluency and skill, in order to maximise learning potential across the curriculum. We aim to foster a love of reading for pleasure so that our students become lifelong readers.

Day to day reading in Holly Lodge Girls’ College:

In addition to the varied and engaging reading opportunities provided in all subjects, we also provide the following reading routines:

• Every form group in years 7-10/12-13 take part in reading during form time, three times a week. The form tutor reads with pupils, modelling effective expression and delivery. Each book is accompanied with vocabulary and definitions to aid understanding and vocabulary development. See the attached PDF for a list of books.
• All students in years 7 have a discreet reading lesson each week, where students read a range of non-fiction texts about the influential women whose names have been given to our buildings. This aims to deepen pupils’ understanding of the school’s ethos, whilst developing comprehension and vocabulary skills.

Reading in subject areas:

Disciplinary Literacy, which means the unique literacy requirements for each subject, is embedded across the school. Each subject has their own Steps to Success profile, which identifies the specific strategies to develop comprehension and vocabulary within each discipline. All departments include relevant tier 2 and tier 3 vocabulary as part of their curriculum planning and delivery.

Reading is a regular fixture for staff training sessions, and we outsource where needed. For example, staff all recently participated in a prosody training session with a view to develop our delivery, expression and widen our repertoire of reading strategies.

Each department has a designated literacy lead, who communicates regularly with the literacy co-ordinator. Between them, they ensure that reading remains a priority across all subjects, areas and share good practice and valuable ideas. Most recently, they have come up with our Books For Going Above and Beyond for GCSE. See the attached PDF for more information.

Once pupils have completed their reading age test, they are placed into a category of red, amber, light green or green. This is then shared amongst staff which helps us to identify pupils who may need additional support or scaffolding with reading, or who may benefit from accessing more challenging texts.

Additional Reading Support:

Pupils across years 7 to 11 undertake a twice yearly (once for year 11) NGRT Reading Age assessment to identify any potential reading support needs. Should your child require any additional support, they may be invited to access one or more of the following:

• Lexonik Leap sessions: these are 20-minute-long sessions delivered by a teacher designed to improve decoding and phonic understanding. They are conducted at least three times a week, often during form time.
• Lexonik Advance sessions: these are hourly sessions delivered by a teacher which take place over a consecutive six-week period and builds on the learning secured in Lexonik Leap.
• Reading Development Course: Throughout course of the year, a significant number of pupils will take part in a reading development programme, which will take place during form-time, in groups of approximately 20 students. This is also delivered by a teacher and uses a range of comprehension, choral, echo and paired reading strategies to boost fluency and automaticity.
• Small reading forms: For pupils in year 7 that have completed the Lexonik Leap sessions, or may benefit from reading practice (below a SAS of 85), they may be placed in a small form with an English specialist teacher, who will use a range of choral, paired and echo reading alongside comprehension strategies to help develop fluency.
• Paired reading with year 12 pupils: pupils in year 7 or 8 who may need to boost their comprehension skills, are paired up with an older student who has been specifically trained. They will see each other once a week during form time, and the pupil will be able to practise their reading skills in a supportive environment.

This support is provided in addition to any relevant SEN provision your child may require.

Reading for Pleasure:

We are constantly looking for a range of ways to encourage and nurture a love of reading. Over the years, we have been involved with a vast range of reading related activities, such as:

• World Book Day activities – Masked Reader, sponsored reads,
• Book clubs
• Liverpool Reads events and guest speakers
• Black History month nonfiction texts
• Readathon
• Book Swaps
• Poetry and writing competitions
• Banned Books events
• Author visits
• Writing workshops – one due with year 12 in June 2024!
• We also have a hugely successful Silver Stories initiative, where pupils read a range of poetry, letters, prose and nonfiction to the residents of a retirement home.

We also run a highly popular and successful Debate Mate club, which is held weekly after school. This is a 17-week programme, which is designed to develop pupils’ communication, speaking and listening, group work skills as well as enhance self-confidence, empathy skills and resilience. Each week, we are joined by mentors from Liverpool University who work with our pupils, teaching them debating skills and preparing them for the competitions. The final debate takes place at Liverpool University, where our pupils use their debating skills to compete against a host of other schools across Liverpool. The winning schools have the opportunity to travel to London to take part in the national competition. You can find more details here:

https://debatemate.org/what-we-do/core-programme/

Literacy Events:

World Book Day – 2^nd March.

Shakespeare’s birthday – April 23rd

International Women’s Day – 8^th March

Debate Mate Cup – Debate Mate – April.

Helpful websites:

www.lexonik.co.uk

www.lovereading.co.uk

www.goodreads.com

www.booktrust.org.uk

www.debatemate.org

Information for parents/ carers:

Downloadable PDF 

Should you have any further queries or concerns regarding your child’s reading, please contact:

Whole School Reading co-ordinator:

Mrs A Edwards                                  a.edwards@hollylodge.liverpool.sch.uk

Literacy co-ordinators: 

Mrs L Scott                                          l.scott@hollylodge.liverpool.sch.uk

Miss J Langley                                   j.langley@hollylodge.liverpool.sch.uk