Reading

Intent, implementation, impact, research underpinning approach

Intent

Our school mission is to ensure that every student becomes a leader in their chosen field, with some choosing to be leaders in STEM. We also mean to ensure that our students can stand shoulder to shoulder with their more affluent peers across the country. Children not reading at or above their chronological reading age will not be able to achieve this and are less likely to achieve a grade 4 at GCSE.

All students are reading and writing at their chronological reading age at the end of KS3.

• To access he GCSE curriculum (fulfilling lives and the first steps is getting excellent GCSE results)
• To support in articulation

To develop a passion and love for reading through habitual reading

• The develop and appreciation for canonical literature.
• To develop cultural capital.

Growth – to ensure that where students are behind, they catch up and are committed to improving. To cultivate independent, habitual readers.

Responsibility – To hold students accountable for their own improvement of literacy skills and exploration of texts to read for pleasure.

Ambition – To ensure that students are reading at their chronological reading age or above in order to gain access to Russel Group Universities and professional careers.

Compassion – Ensure students engage with a range of texts from a range of perspectives and cultures.

Excellence – Building habits of reading for pleasure and building foundational knowledge for future success.

Implementation

• Every lesson incorporates aspects of literacy and reading. The Read Now is a 10-minute focus on academic texts at the start of every lesson.
• Explicit vocabulary instruction through the use of Core Knowledge.
• Reading programme for students after AM and PM line-up.
• Rewards and trips.
• Reading intervention programmes: Bedrock+, Lexia, Flash Academy, 1:1 reading support

Impact

The reading programmes and our priority of reading throughout the school day has led to excellent progress in students’ progress in regard to their reading ages. The NGRT is a standardised, adaptive termly assessment to measure reading skills against the national average.

From Autumn 2023 to Spring 2024, there was a significant increase in students’ chronological reading ages. The following numbers represent what percentage of students were reading above their CRA at the end of the academic year:

• Year 7 88%
• Year 8 71%
• Year 9 75%
• Year 10 70%

There was also an increase in the number of students reading at a CRA of 17 and 17+:

• Year 7 +8%
• Year 8 +12%
• Year 9 +18%
• Year 10 +9%

Research underpinning approach

D Lemov, Reading Reconsidered, 2016

National Literacy Trust, Reading for Pleasure