Rainford High celebrated International Literacy Day. The focus on literacy started in form-time where pupils enjoyed taking part in competitive literacy quizzes and countdown conundrums. Throughout the day, literacy was alive in all subjects. Each department embraced the event, planning literacy-based activities, from hot-air balloon debates in R.E. and adverb warm-up games in Drama, which developed pupils’ speaking and listening skills, to the use of ‘word coins’ in Technology to encourage pupils to use correct technical language.
There was also a host of literacy activities outside of lessons. At break-time, there was a ceremony to celebrate the excellent work that our Year 10 Literacy Leaders completed last year and they were presented with their certificates and badges by Mr Young, who then officially opened our new, state-of-the-art library. Listen out for the official name of this new facility which will be announced once all pupils’ suggestions have been considered this week.
At lunch-time, the Literacy Leaders, supported by the school’s librarian, Mrs Relf and Associate Principal for Literacy, Mrs Wheelock, organised a range of literacy-based activities for all pupils to enjoy in the library. There was punctuation treasure hunt which enabled pupils to familiarise themselves with their new environment, while gaining a better understanding of key punctuation terms. Pupils were also keen to try the new computers and enjoyed taking part in interactive grammar games online. However, the activity which generated most interest amongst pupils and staff was the inter-form spelling and grammar treasure hunt which took place in and around the library. The amount of entries and the accuracy of answers were astounding, with the winners not only correctly identifying the mistakes but also explaining why they were wrong. Congratulations are due to Lucy Boycott and Thomas Ralfs (Year 7), Hope Jordan (Year 8), Thomas Barber (Year 9), Jasmine Sealeaf (Year 10) and James Hooton (Year 11) who will be presented with their certificates and prizes in assembly this week.
Some pupils simply wanted to enjoy the new library and browse the thousands of new books which have been especially selected to help support them in their studies as well as to foster a love for reading. In addition to the books available for loan in the library, hundreds of books were brought in for our book swap, showing that many pupils and teachers already have a love for reading.
The literacy buzz was not just limited to the library, with many departments organising extra-curricular literacy activities at lunchtime, such as a spelling bee and homophone bingo competitions in English to the favourite quotation wall and interpretation of monologues in Drama.
The day was a great success in raising awareness that good literacy skills are vital to succeed in all subjects!