Literacy at Marriotts 

Proficient communication is the foundation of a successful life: being able to read, write and articulate clearly is a fundamental life skill. Reading is one of the most effective ways to leverage social change and, therefore, equipping students with the ability to read is some of the best pastoral care we can provide. Reading is an entitlement for every child and every single young person at Marriotts deserves the opportunity to achieve their personal best. We work closely with families to support our young people to improve their reading skills and therefore, their life chances.  

Reading and Literacy at Marriotts 

At Marriotts, literacy is embedded across the curriculum through consistent, research-informed practices that help all students read, write, and communicate with confidence. Lessons include an Everybody Reads section, where students read either with their teacher or independently to strengthen fluency, comprehension, and positive reading habits. Our Everybody Writes or Works section gives students the opportunity for independent application and extended practice to consolidate their learning. Our whole-school oracy strategies, including core routines such as I Say, You Say and Turn and Talk, promote structured talk, deepen understanding, and ensure that every student has the chance to articulate their thinking. To further support access to the curriculum, our Weaker Readers Blueprint provides guidance for teachers in how to support struggling readers.  

Reading and Library Lessons  

At Marriotts, our school library is a central part of our rich reading culture. All students are able to use the library at break and lunch times to: silently read for pleasure, return and take out reading books and material, undertake independent study and play educational games.  

We have planned a reading programme which uses one hour, every other week of English curriculum time and is delivered by the English department to our Year 7 and Year 8 students.  

The extracts studied help to build students’ understanding of the taught curriculum units, including genre and themes. These lessons also include a literacy challenge task, encouraging students to be highly effective learners outside of the classroom.  

We follow a 5-step model to explicitly teach effective reading strategies to students: 

1. Activating prior knowledge, including making predictions 
2. Modelled expert fluency and prosody, with students tracking the text 
3. Echo reading 
4. Comprehension and summary 
5. Explicit vocabulary instruction 

 Home Learning 

As part of our commitment to building a strong reading culture at Marriotts, KS3 students undertake compulsory reading and vocabulary homework each week:  

• Sparx Reader -  Sparx Reader is an online platform designed to improve young people's literacy through personalised reading, comprehension checks, and vocabulary exercises. It matches students with e-books based on their reading level, assesses their understanding with comprehension questions, and rewards them with points for careful reading. Students in years 7-9 complete a minimum of 300 SRP per week as part of their weekly English homework.  https://reader.sparx-learning.com/   

• Bedrock - An award-winning, digital literacy platform for schools that boosts students' reading, writing, and language skills by teaching Tier 2 vocabulary, grammar, and common roots through personalized, engaging lessons in original fiction and non-fiction. Students in years 7-9 complete between 11 and 20 Bedrock points per week as part of their weekly English homework.   https://app.bedrocklearning.org/   

We also encourage students to read frequently, advising them to read a book for pleasure for at least 30 minutes each day. This could include graphic novels, audiobooks or young adult texts.  

Intervention for struggling readers: 

Alongside our teaching and learning blueprints, we provide targeted interventions to support those students who require additional help to make progress. Our highly trained reading intervention team deliver the following interventions:   

• Reading Plus: an online programme that develops students’ silent reading fluency, comprehension and vocabulary. In 2024, Marriotts won the national ‘School of the Year’ award for Reading Plus recognising our dedication and extra support to improve students’ reading abilities. You can read further about this prestigious award here.  

• Reading Fluency: a bespoke verbal fluency and comprehension programme where students who have secured phonics knowledge, develop their fluency through oral, repeated reading and comprehension practice.  

• Ruth Miskin, Fresh Start Phonics: A systematic synthetic phonics programme specifically designed for secondary age students who have not yet secured their phonics knowledge.   

Reading Culture  

At Marriotts, we foster a rich culture of reading through a wide range of initiatives designed to inspire, support, and challenge every student. Our Reading Rangers programme sees Reading Plus students visit local primary schools to read with younger pupils, building confidence and strengthening community links, while the Reader Leader Project promotes vertical reading across the school as older students mentor younger, vulnerable readers. To encourage reading for pleasure, we subscribe to Book Buzz, which provides every student in Years 7 and 8 with a free book of their choice each year. Annually, we host the Scholastic Book Fair, a temporary pop-up bookshop which allows students to browse and purchase books. Sales earned from the book fair earn our school Scholastic Rewards which allows us to buy a diverse and wonderful range of reading material for our library. We also provide students with opportunities to become student librarians which allows students to gain rewarding responsibilities.  Our Scholars Programme stretches the most able by engaging them in seminar-style tutorials where they read and debate academic journals, developing higher-level thinking and scholarly curiosity.  Alongside these initiatives, author visits bring reading to life, offering students the chance to hear from and be inspired by professional writers.