At Holy Family, we believe that Interventions and Support begin in the classroom. Through well planned lessons and assessment, and excellent subject knowledge, every teacher and member of support staff recognises the academic potential of all Holy Family students. Therefore, underachievement can be rapidly identified and intervention strategies put in place.

Each department will offer support sessions to any student experiencing difficulties. Where possible, there will be a second member of staff in lessons to work alongside the teacher in the delivery of the subject. Our vibrant SEND department also provides vital support with individuals or small groups of students. Throughout Years 10 and 11, there is an established interventions’ timetable in which our committed colleagues volunteer their time before or after school to facilitate ‘booster’ sessions in their given subjects.

Yet we also recognise that some students also need emotional as well as academic support and have many colleagues and programmes to ensure that this is provided. Therefore, we have our in house Learning Mentors and Year Team mentoring. In addition we work with Zurich mentors, Spark2Life mentors and run peer mentoring programme. 

We continually strive to ensure that every student at Holy Family is supported and we trust that they feel academically challenged and safe.

Whole School Literacy

Literacy opens the door to the curriculum and is the key to improving the life chances of young people. Since developing these skills is so crucial, it is embedded within teaching, learning and assessment, where it is taught explicitly in every subject. Students are, therefore, required - and become accustomed to – improving their work, following feedback from staff, including correcting errors in spelling, punctuation and grammar,

At Holy Family Catholic School, we make it our mission to ensure that every learner is supported to make progress. There is a reading support programme for those with additional literacy needs, whilst more able students are directed to embrace opportunities for wider reading through extended projects. In addition, all pupils in Years 7-8 have one timetabled lesson, per fortnight, in the school library, during which they receive an induction on how to make effective use of this resource, along with a taught programme, with a focus on reading, thought-provoking discussion and book reviews.

The provision is consolidated with weekly spelling, punctuation and grammar tests during form time, plus spelling competitions between one house and another, all of which lead to tangible rewards, as well as academic progress.

Numeracy