Literacy holds a significant place in every subject, and a solid foundation is paramount to being well prepared for life beyond school.

At Otago Girls’ High School we accept that sometimes students require additional support with their reading and writing if they are to achieve their academic potential. For this reason we have several initiatives in place to help junior and senior students.

After seeing great success with last year’s Pasifika literacy focus groups, a similar program is now running for Maori students in the junior school. In addition, both these groups have established homework clubs. The aim here is to develop students’ skills in decoding and comprehending written texts. We want to help them gain personal excellence, and ultimately pave the way for success in their future NCEA studies where they will encounter increasingly complex texts.

The beginning of Term 2 saw a successful start to our Curriculum Reading program. This tutoring is offered to senior students who are struggling with the reading and writing demands in class. For half an hour a week these girls receive extra guidance with their NCEA assessments. We would like to express our sincere gratitude to Mrs Carol Clarkson and her team of volunteer tutors, who students always find to be warm, interested and helpful.

Often parents ask what can be done at home to assist their daughter’s literacy skills. Parents are welcomed to sit down with the literacy teachers if they wish to learn more about strategies that will work for their daughter at home. The most effective way to help build her vocabulary is to encourage her to read widely and for sustained periods of time. It has been found that students benefit from choosing their own texts and reading for pleasure. We highly recommend that you implement a bedtime policy where your daughter turns off devices and reads a book before lights go out. Regular and sustained reading not only helps students’ comprehension and understanding of written structures, but it also improves memory, reduces stress, and leads to stronger analytical thinking and mental stimulation.

In the first instance, please encourage your daughter to seek help from her classroom teachers, all of whom are well-equipped with specific literacy strategies to support learning. If she needs, she can also touch base with Miss Sutherland (TIC Literacy) or Mrs Millar (TIC Learning Support). Help is only an email or conversation away and is happily given to all students who ask for it.