Literacy at St Paul’s Academy

At St Paul’s Academy, we believe literacy is the cornerstone of a successful education and a fulfilling life. We are dedicated to developing strong reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills in every student, while fostering a lifelong love of language.

We understand that reading isn't just a skill; it's a gateway to endless worlds and possibilities. That's why we place a huge emphasis on reading for pleasure. We cultivate a vibrant reading culture through:

•  Our newly-decorated library, filled with diverse and exciting books to capture every interest.

•  Regular library visits, encouraging exploration and discovery.

•  Storytelling and reading aloud, bringing stories to life and sparking imaginations.

•  Book clubs and reading challenges, fostering a community of readers.

•  Author visits and book fairs, inspiring a passion for storytelling.

Our Literacy Co-Curriculum

Bedrock Learning

As part of the school’s ongoing commitment to evidence-based literacy instruction, we have partnered with literacy improvement specialists Bedrock Learning.

Built by former English teachers, Bedrock Learning is a digital literacy platform which offers learners a carefully sequenced and adaptive vocabulary and grammar curriculum. It exposes learners to new words and grammatical concepts through a rich diet of culturally valuable fiction and non-fiction, and its algorithm ensures that learning is personalised to your child, identifying and targeting gaps in knowledge.

Students are expected to achieve 20 points per week as part of their homework.

This is a transformative addition to our literacy offering, ensuring that our young people are equipped with the vocabulary and grammatical understanding they need to access the curriculum and express their ideas in every subject.

What parents can do

As their parent/guardian, you are granted access to your own Bedrock parent account, which will allow you to support your child with their academic vocabulary growth. You will be able to see their weekly engagement figures as well as receive insights into the words they are learning and have learnt. You can also receive weekly progress reports on your child’s progress via email.

To create your Bedrock Learning parent account:

1. Visit app.bedrocklearning.org
2. Click on the ‘Guardian sign up’ button, then click ‘School access code’.
3. Complete the Guardian sign-up form and enter your child’s access code: (contact reception)
4. Check your email for your password and log in (be sure to check your junk folder).

Morning Mastery - Tutor Reading

We foster a love of reading widely three Tutor times a week. Each term, a year group explores a canonical book, read aloud by tutors. We use reciprocal reading strategies—predicting, questioning, clarifying, and summarising—to spark engaging discussions and deepen comprehension. This shared experience builds literary appreciation, oracy and critical thinking skills.

Book Buzz

All Year 7 students receive a free book at the start of the year as part of the Book Buzz programme. Each term, we have a book swap, so students can read a different book.

Reading Intervention

Hackney Literacy Programme

Twice a week, during tutor time, Year 7 readers collaborate in small groups led by a teacher, practising the reciprocal reading skills. This enables students to check that they understand the content of what they are reading, make inferences based on what they have read and improve their extended writing skills, enabling them to reach age-related expectations by the end of the academic year.

Rapid Plus

Our Rapid Plus programme supports our struggling SEN and EAL readers. We work in small groups so we can target literal and inferential comprehension questions, and build a personal response to a range of visual stories. 

Lexonik Leap

This structured phonics programme is delivered in small groups for 15 minutes three times a week to support students in developing the foundations of reading.

Lexonik Advance

Once a week for 50 minutes, a group of four students work with a teacher to master academic vocabulary, enabling them to achieve an average reading age gain of 27 months in just six weeks.