Literacy & Oracy

At St Gregory’s we see Literacy as essential. Literacy is not just about spelling, punctuation and grammar. Literacy is about the way we communicate at every level.

At school, reading, writing, speaking and listening are vital for success. Being literate enables students to fully access the curriculum, not just English Language and Literature but of all their subjects. This then enables them to reach their full potential. If a student is not a fluent reader, they are constantly battling with a barrier to learning and academic success, they “struggle to manage the cognitive load of learning because they never achieved fluency in reading or writing.” (Breadmore, 2019).

Being literate also helps build confidence and self-esteem. Literate students are more likely to engage in conversations with others, have stronger emotional intelligence and develop closer friendships. Research by the National Literacy Trust clearly shows a link between literacy and mental health – “Children who are the most engaged with literacy are three times more likely to have higher levels of mental wellbeing than children who are the least engaged” (NLT, 2018).

As an adult, literacy is a vital skill helping our students navigate every day life - from using the internet, to filling out forms or making sense of instructions on medicines or road signs. Literacy opens up the possibility of further and higher education and helps develop a range of soft skills thus increasing their employability and ability to transition between jobs. Indeed the DfE describes literacy knowledge as “turbocharging social mobility” (DfE, 2019) and this is clearly shown by the fact that pupils with high literacy levels are twice as likely to be employed by the age of 34 than their counterparts (NLT, 2022).

With this appreciation of the value of literacy, we have worked hard to develop strategies that raise standards within our school and embed literacy at the centre of our learning ethos. We aim to reward literacy with our Literacy Points scheme, encourage reading for pleasure with our Reading Champion Challenge and support literacy with our sixth form Reading Partners scheme, Read Write Inc and Core Plus intervention strategies.

In this section you will find links to our departmental reading lists, suggestions of how you can support your child with their literacy and links to further research.

The value of reading and literacy