World Book Week and Author visits
Every year, Kineton High School invites an author to visit the school and speak to students about reading, writing and a love of storytelling.
In 2023 Dan Freedman visited to talk about his books around a football loving secondary student called Jamie Johnson.
Then in 2024 Mark Walden came to Kineton to talk about his H.I.V.E series and how he writes and interweaves stories into video games too.
In 2025 we had Stephen Kelman visit the school to discuss his book Pigeon English, which is also the GCSE contemporary text studied for the English Literature GCSE. It was fantastic to watch Y10 and Y11 glean as much information as they could from the author and to look at his motivations for fictionalising and telling the story of Damilola Taylor, a 10-year-old who was murdered on a Peckham estate in 2000. Finally, Wren James visited us to discuss how they like to focus on writing novels around Science Fiction, these novels have included the Loneliest Girl in the Universe (which is being developed by MGM studios into a feature film) and more recently Last Seen Online which was released in August 2024. The author visit with Wren James also included a book signing whereby over 40 students paid to have a copy of one of Wren’s books which they could then take home and read.
Finally, we also like to promote oracy and students have participated in a no pen day, whereby they are encouraged to listen, discuss and challenge each other’s ideas.
All our literacy events aim to help students eventually prepare for two English GCSES (Language and Literature) but ultimately to inspire a lifetime love for reading and writing.
Literacy at Kineton
Kineton High School Literacy vision statement
The fundamentals of literacy are imperative to the achievement of a rich a fulfilling life. These skills are used every day to make sense of the world and to communicate. By ensuring all our students have functional literacy skills, we are setting them up for the best chance at success in life.
At Kineton High School we recognise that in order to improve literacy, we must be afforded the opportunity to practise. This will have a positive impact on our students’ self-esteem, behaviour for learning, attainment and motivation.
Our literacy curriculum is designed to allow every student the chance to develop their vocabulary expression, oracy, comprehension and grammar. All of this will help to enhance and enrich the learning in all subjects and prepare our students for life beyond Kineton High School.
Our literacy aims:
- Create a whole school culture of the importance of literacy for staff and students alike
- To embed literacy skills across all curriculum and to empower staff with the confidence to teach literacy in their subject areas
- To monitor student progress in reading and to evaluate strategies for those identified as not making expected progress
- To provide a range of intervention strategies for targeted students to help them attain the national standards for literacy e.g. literacy intervention groups, national tutoring programme, Fresh Start and Pass Fast
- To develop student confidence to express themselves, through writing and through their speaking skills
- To enhance student vocabulary and to lessen the vocabulary gap for disadvantaged students
- To promote a love of reading for pleasure within our school through enrichment and staff promotion
- To develop and exceed student potential above and beyond their chronological age for reading
We endeavour to meet our aims within 3 waves of support and development:
| Who for? | What takes place? | |
|---|---|---|
| Wave 1 (universal provision) |
Every student |
|
| Wave 2 | Students who require additional literacy support in groups or on a one to one level |
|
| Wave 3 | Students who have SEN in this area and require further help or support | Bespoke support as required through SEN provision and within classroom setting |