We are passionate about expanding knowledge, driving progress and ensuring our pupils enter the community having had opportunity and experiences to learn and personally grow. We value the qualifications that our pupils achieve but we want to ensure that pupils have the knowledge and competencies they need to understand and thrive in the world.
Numeracy
Numeracy is an individual’s capacity to identify and understand the role that mathematics plays in the world, to make well-founded judgements and to use and engage with mathematics in ways that meet the needs of that individual’s life as a constructive, concerned and reflective citizen. Pupils’ confidence and proficiency in numeracy is assessed regularly, with pupils receiving personalised support and interventions where required. Literacy is an individual’s capacity to use their skills in language in order to communicate effectively with others in a range of situations, understand written information and meet the needs of that individual’s life within the wider society. Being literate also provides opportunities for strategic thinking and reflection such as planning, organising and revising; building and negotiating meaning; and working out what new situations expect.
Reading and Literacy
Literacy is an individual’s capacity to use their skills in language in order to communicate effectively with others in a range of situations, understand written information and meet the needs of that individual’s life within the wider society. Being literate also provides opportunities for strategic thinking and reflection such as planning, organising and revising; building and negotiating meaning; and working out what new situations expect.
At Woldgate School we help pupils to develop strong literacy skills and love of the written word by creating opportunities for reading both daily, in form time, and in weekly Literacy lessons. In Key Stage 3, we support also literacy development through weekly spelling challenges or tests.
Pupils’ literacy skills are assessed regularly, with personalised support and interventions put in place where necessary. The STAR assessment suggests appropriate difficulties of books and Accelerated Reader has over 220,000 quizzes pupils can take when they complete a reading book. The link for Accelerated Reader can be found below.
Strong literacy skills enable pupils to communicate their opinions and ideas; engage with complex texts; and thrive across the school curriculum. Developing a wide vocabulary allows pupils access to complex concepts of the curriculum and provides opportunities to develop and express their own viewpoints. In lessons, we explicitly teach the subject-specific vocabulary pupils need to read, write and communicate effectively in their subjects and the wider world. These words also appear in the knowledge organisers for each subject or topic.