Led by the Reading Interventions Coordinator, all pupils in Year 7 undertake two Reading Assessments to identify their reading age and their ability to access the secondary curriculum; research shows that pupils need a minimum reading age of 9 years and 6 months to do this.

Also, all pupils in all years are Reading Age assessed annually. This ensures that none of our learners’ reading slips two years below their chronological age.

The Reading Age Assessments identify pupils to join one or more of our Reading Support Programmes.

We deliver 3 different Reading Support Programmes. They are:

1. Literacy Catch-Up Programme:

  • One to one structured sessions involving reading and writing, delivered by trained staff in two 15-minute sessions per week.
  • On-going Reading Intervention Programme targeting children with a decoding reading age below 9.6
  • Reviews through the year and an exit strategy (to Reading Groups) means that pupils leave the programme as their skills and their confidence grow.

2. Guided Reading Group:

  • Small groups of children work on reading and comprehension skills, led by staff trained in “Guided Reading/ Reciprocal Reading”.
  • This is a half hour session, once per week during form time.
  • Targets pupils assessed at reading 2 years below their chronological age.
  • Includes pupils in all years.

3. Lexonik Advance:

  • Delivered in six, one-hour, teacher-led sessions in small groups of 4 students.
  • A unique, research-based programme leveraging metacognition, repetition, decoding and automaticity.
  • Lexonik Advance trains learners to develop phonological awareness and make links between unknown words using common prefix, root word and suffix definitions.
  • Often targeted at older students to aid reading speed and fluency.

 

Parents are informed about the interventions that are planned / in place and also informed of the progress made at the end of the intervention. Some students may only have one intervention, whereas others may take part in more than one.

In addition to any interventions that may be needed for students, there is also a dedicated reading time during Literacy form time and a dedicated, weekly Reading Lesson during their English lessons, as well as dedicated Reciprocal Reading lessons across all other subjects.

New starters at school (mid-term and/or outside Y7) are also assessed for Reading ability, hence pupils may also be added to the programmes.

All interventions are delivered by trained members of The Literacy Team. The work is overseen by the Reading Interventions Coordinator.

Any questions or concerns… please contact Mrs Lane / Reading Interventions Coordinator