Literacy
Welcome to JSTC’s literacy page! Here you’ll be able to discover how much we value literacy at JSTC and appreciate its role as an essential part of everyone’s learning journey.
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What is Literacy?
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‘Literacy is the ability to read, write, speak and listen in a way that lets us communicate effectively and make sense of the world’ (National Literacy Trust)
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Literacy at JSTC
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At JSTC we intend to develop confident learners and having good literacy skills is a fundamental part of achieving that. It is a well-known fact that students with high levels of literacy are more likely to succeed in school and the world beyond; therefore, it is our aim to support, develop and improve these skills in all our students, regardless of ability.
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Improving standards in literacy is a priority of all teaching staff, across all subject areas. Through quality first teaching and the staff literary learning community, we continually develop and explore ways to support our students’ literacy needs and assist those who need additional support with necessary intervention. In addition, beyond the curriculum, we promote literacy throughout the school in a variety of ways including reading programmes, weekly literacy and word foci, literacy events and extra-curricular activities involving student volunteers.
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To discover more please scroll down to see our Literacy enrichment projects.
Targeted Provision
Sometimes students need additional support with reading and for those students who are identified, at JSTC we have various support programmes in place to suit the needs of individuals.
· Reading Buddies
Reading Buddies is a simple evidence-based programme that is used to help children with reading in Y7. Reading Buddies encourages children to read more independently, to promote a love of books and to become more positive about reading in general. Y9 mentors support our students in this programme.
· Little Wandle: CODE Phonics
Run through the SEND department, JSTC are participating in a pilot literacy programme from Little Wandle, known as CODE. It aims to support reading development in KS3 with a focus on Year 7. After initial testing, individuals are identified for regular small group, individual intervention which aims to develop reading skills.
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· Catch-Up Literacy
For students in Years 8-10, the SEND department run structured one-to-one Catch-up Literacy intervention for learners who continue to find reading difficult after Year 7.
School Library
The school library is a great place for our students to explore and enjoy our wide range of age-appropriate, carefully selected books.
The library space is used throughout the day for timetabled lessons, interventions and meetings, but crucially, it also provides a quiet space for students to read, relax and browse the shelves during their lunch break.
Students can easily track the books they have borrowed via the ‘Reading Cloud’, which is accessible on the Student Intranet. Students can also use the Reading Cloud to explore which books are trending and read reviews.
The library is run by Miss McLennan, who is available at lunchtimes, Monday– Friday, to help with book loans, book returns and to give advice.
Library and Reading lessons
To encourage reading for pleasure and foster a love of books, Year 7 take part in a weekly rotation of reading and library lessons.
During the library lessons, small groups visit the library with a specialist teacher to explore books and complete reading-based activities.
During the reading lesson, English teachers read a class text to their students. The texts have been carefully selected for the age and abilities of the students. This is a popular way of sharing quality texts with the students and supports transition from Year 6 as it mimics the style reading lessons in primary school.
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Did you know that at JSTC, some of our students are published writers?
In recent years we have been working with ‘First Story’, an organisation that encourages young people to value and enjoy creative writing. Every year, a selected group of Year 9 students complete weekly workshops with a professional writer. At the end of the programme, the students create an anthology of short stories and poems, which are then published in their very own book (designed by the students too)!
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Al Anthologies produced by JSTC students are also in the British Library- what an achievement!
At the end of the year students attend a book launch where parents are invited to celebrate their children’s success and hear some of the brilliant work that is produced.
Literacy Focused Events
At JSTC we also run events throughout the year to encourage reading for pleasure. Some of these include:
· World Book Day book swaps and book competitions
· The school host an annual Scholastic book fair
· We run Bookbuzz for Year 7, where students are able to choose a free book to keep.
· We follow the Carnegie book awards and students from KS4 have previously published reviews of the shortlisted books on the Carnegie Shadowing Group website.
Carnegie Shadowers Group
The Carnegie Medal is an annual literacy award celebrating outstanding works of literature for children. Each year, students across the country are invited to read the books that have been shortlisted for the award, review and share their views and ‘shadow’ the judges as they vote for the winning book.
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JSTC’s Carnegie Shadowers group, ‘Bookmarked’ invites some of our most enthusiastic readers in KS4 to take part.
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Find out more about the Carnegie children's book awards by clicking link to the website below:
2025 Student Reviews
October, October
by Katya Balen
'I have just finished reading October, October and I must say it is honestly one of the best books I have ever read. It has the perfect amount of mystery and sadness, while keeping you wondering.
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October, October shows perfectly the struggles of adapting to new surroundings using two point of views following October's, but whilst showing snippets of the point of view of the owl companion, Stig, and while this is not directly shown, the more you read, the more you realise they are almost like the same soul in different bodies, both longing to be wild again'.
The Crossing
by Manjeet Mann
'In simple words I would describe the book as an adventurous read about two very different characters with two very different stories, yet so similar to each other. They both end up swimming across the English Channel and the book counts down to the moment where they can escape. However, only one manages to successfully cross the channel in the end.
'The Crossing' overall is a book with a unique structure than other children's books filled with both sadness and happiness. I would definitely recommend this phenomenal read to others as I for sure enjoyed it myself.'
Everyone Dies Famous in a Small Town
by Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock
'Everyone Dies famous in a Small Town' shows about how everyone’s lives and everyone’s actions link to / affects another. It’s created by adding a bunch of short stories together. The book is set throughout a few towns in Alaska which is actually where the author of it was raised, so maybe she added echoes of her childhood throughout the story. Everyone dies famous in a small town covers a lot of serious issues that can be found in real life such as the impact of wildfire, disappearances and deaths of loved ones. Hobbies that anyone would find perfectly normal are filled with hidden truths. Like when Gina ice skates with her step sister, Poppy, in the first chapter. It reveals her mum died and her dad moved on to be with Poppy’s mum, it revealed Gina was jealous of Poppy even though she is much younger than her and she was afraid her dad was moving on and forgetting about her mother too soon.
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The book is about a few characters who meet: we have Poppy, with her invisible friend Elizabeth; there’s Fiona and Amy, who are best friends but get into a lot of fights; and there’s Kenny, who loves playing basketball. And many more. They all meet because their life ties into each other’s one way or another. The book truly makes you think. Even the title. In this book everyone knows everyone and everyone knows everything. But as I went on to read the story it kind of makes the characters question how much they truly know about each other. Although this book was good, however, I wish the author went back to some of the previous stories and flipped back to the previous characters.
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My personal favourite of each of the stories was ‘Angry Starfish’. I liked the sensitive topic about Gina’s mum dying and about the jealousy and sadness that stemmed from that. Gina started to get flashbacks of when she was younger with her mum and I thinks it’s very wholesome. As readers we see Gina adores her mum and doesn’t want to forget the memories with her. I like the serious topic of grief I think it’s because it’s relatable to me and to most readers. The sensitive topics let readers know they aren’t alone in situations such as grief and trauma. Overall the book is a really good read.