At St. Patrick's and St. Brigid's College we recognise the importance of good literacy skills and work hard to ensure that each of our pupils develops skills in reading, writing, speaking and listening that will prepare them for their future and support them to ‘achieve their goals, to develop their knowledge and God-given potential, and to participate fully in their community and wider society.

The ability to communicate effectively in whatever situation you find yourself and to whom ever you find yourself speaking or writing is essential for each person to participate with confidence in our society. We build these skills steadily throughout our curriculum.

Our approach to literacy is twofold:

Essential Literacy:

We have high expectations of the way pupils communicate and these are delivered through all lessons and in every encounter the pupils have with a teacher, whatever their subject. Pupils are expected to write and spell accurately, presenting work clearly and neatly – and all teachers follow a marking policy through which they will correct spellings and punctuation or grammatical errors. We also expect pupils to communicate clearly and appropriately when they are speaking.

Reading:

“Not all readers are leaders, but all leaders are readers.”
^{Harry S. Truman}

As a college we aim to foster a love of learning in our pupils and we believe that one of the elements of this, that can bring great personal satisfaction, is a love of reading. We promote independent reading and encourage pupils to have a personal reading book with them at all times. Reading is important because it affects almost every aspect of a person’s life (Breadmore et al., 2019). It provides pupils with opportunities to improve their written style, understand the world outside the school curriculum, and widen their vocabulary. Furthermore, “Students who cannot read, write, and communicate effectively are highly unlikely to access the challenging academic curriculum in secondary schools and are more likely to have poor educational outcomes across all subjects” (Ricketts, Sperring, and Nation, 2014).

A pupil who reads for 20 minutes each day will read 3,600 minutes in a school year, equivalent to 60 extra whole school days. They will be exposed to over 1,800,000 new words.

It is undeniable that reading is important, but in secondary schools, increased independence, more homework, and greater social awareness often push reading to the sidelines. As a parent/guardian, it can be difficult to navigate conversations about reading at home, especially with increasing technological advances. However, the benefits of doing so are palpable.

Writing:

Pupils are provided with different opportunities to develop their writing skills, for example, by writing articles and entering writing competitions.

How Can Parents/Guardians get involved?

The single most valuable thing that a parent/guardian can do to support their child’s literacy development is to read regularly with their child at home. Just 15 minutes a day of your child reading aloud to you – from a book, a newspaper – anything, will develop their confidence and their reading ability.
Remember that every piece of written work for every subject needs to be accurate – don’t let your child rush their homework – and make sure that they have checked over it before they submit it.

'Literacy is promoted effectively through some well-planned and subject-specific learning activities across the curriculum. The pupils' writing is celebrated to good effect in displays throughout the school.'

^{Education & Training Inspectorate}