Reading Strategy
We recognise that students need to be confident readers in order to access the curriculum across the board. Students need to be able to ‘read to learn’. We test all students’ reading on a yearly basis in order to ascertain levels, monitor progress and provide intervention where needed. Students struggling with decoding and phonics are provided with one to one intervention using the Thinking Reading programme. We understand that comprehension skills relate to vocabulary knowledge and contextual understanding which all students need support with despite their age or stage. Therefore, we have created Reading Champions in every subject to develop and drive the teaching of reading across faculty areas. We have created the 7 Golden Rules for teaching reading and expect there to be a reading component in every lesson every day.
As well as this, we recognise the importance of reading for pleasure. Our home learning policy sets out that students in Key Stage Three should read for at least 20 minutes every day and update their electronic Reading Logs via TEAMs. We provide weekly reading for pleasure sessions through English lessons and at tutor time. As well as this, we celebrate reading and invite authors into school every year during the POP Up Literary Festival for all year groups. A paired reading programme supports Pupil Premium children even further by providing them with a reading buddy. As stated vocabulary is key to reading comprehension, so we have created the NWA Dictionary which lists all the vocabulary needed across subject areas. Subject areas teach subject specific vocabulary explicitly using different methods and drawing on morphological structures and etymology as well as lots of repetition. Fluency is also key to building reading confidence so we ask staff to model fluency every lesson, every day.
Reading