Encouraging collaboration between school departments
National Literacy Trust member Claire Upton explains how she uses her membership.
National Literacy Trust member Claire Upton explains how she uses her National Literacy Trust membership to encourage collaboration between school departments and engage students with reading.
For as long as I have worked at my current school, we have had membership of the National Literacy Trust; however, it is only in the past couple of years that we have really made the best use of the membership.
Last year we were lucky enough to take part in the Literacy Leaders Scheme. With a colleague and two sixth form students, we spent the day at PwC in Leeds working on ideas to improve the reading environment at our school. One of the main focuses was on promoting a love of reading across the school. Results of the National Literacy Trust survey showed that our students realised the importance of literacy but not the pleasure of reading. Students would take books out from our library but they didn’t read them. Books were seen as part of their equipment — compulsory to have such as a calculator or their planner! Books were certainly not enjoyed.
With our Literacy Leaders, we started small reading groups. Our first group was for Year 7 boys from one of our lower sets. We started with a book recommended by the National Literacy Trust, The Book Tower. The students loved it. Our sixth formers used the techniques they had learnt with the National Literacy Trust, asking the students questions to get them talking about the book. We moved on to Coraline and other graphic novels but I think The Book Tower remained their favourite!
As part of the Literacy Leaders scheme, we were able to invite an author in to the school. We were delighted to invite Tom Palmer in and spend some time with our Year 8 students. We targeted weaker students — perhaps those who didn’t always demonstrate a natural love of reading, but it was a joy to see them fully engaged with Tom that day.
Being a member of the National Literacy Trust has also meant that we have encouraged collaboration between departments. Last year we ran a competition with the art faculty to design a BookBench. The art club, with supervision from sixth formers, painted the winning design. This year we are creating a display for the library that promotes our school’s love of reading.
One of the ideas from the workshop was to give students more of a say in the books that were bought for the library. We encouraged students to vote for the books that they wanted. The results were interesting; the students did want to read the latest from various YouTubers but they also opted for some older classics and newer books such as Wonder by R.J Palacio.
I cannot underestimate how beneficial membership of the National Literacy Trust has been. I wish I had made better use of my membership years ago. If you have membership — make the most of it!
Claire Upton is Literacy Leader at Immanuel College in Bradford.
