OCA leads the reading way!

Ormiston Chadwick Academy in Widnes know reading is the gateway skill that makes all other learning possible.

The academy day begins with reading; students pass its book vending machine as they enter the academy and in their tutor groups they popcorn read their form reading book based on their OCAER values. Reading continues as it is embedded in every lesson and pupils have a vast array of wider reading materials in all their lessons. They include many diverse texts and its Year 11 students are exposed to challenging material in the library during its literature lunch club each week.

Nikki Johnson, vice principal curriculum at Ormiston Chadwick Academy, said: “Our library is at the heart many of our initiatives; we held a ‘Date a Book’ competition for Valentine’s Day, we turned it into Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory for World Book Day and our Year 10s listen to our Year 7s read there each Friday! It’s also the location of our fortnightly library lessons and we also have staff bookshelves for leadership, pedagogical and wider reading texts.

“Extending our love of reading into the community is our passion; when our staff make a home visit, they are always armed with a selection of books for the students and their entire family. We held a highly successful ‘Books for Breakfast’ event when Key Stage 3 students and their parents/carers read together over a tasty breakfast!

“Our students have their reading ages tested regularly so we can identify any support needed and measure our impact. We have a specialist reading hub with our reading intervention tutor for small groups who are following our bespoke reading programme and we have a very special visitor to our reading hub on Mondays; it’s Harley, our literacy dog.”