Reading Curriculum

 The importance of reading

• 'Reading is the master skill of secondary school' - Alex Quigley
• Students that read fluently have more cognitive resources to comprehend text
• Students that comprehend text have a better chance of doing well in exams and in life

 Reading intervention

• We test all students early in year 7 using the NGRT reading test. 
• Teacher marksheets have the following reading data - RA, SAS, SC, PC.
• We use our intervention flowchart to identify students for phonics and reading fluency interventions.
• We use YARC diagnostic to select students for phonics intervention. 
• We keep a spreadsheet of students that require phonics and reading fluency interventions.

 Reading in the classroom

• We have a whole school schedule showing when subjects explicitly teach reading fluency to students.
• Our target is for all students to have reading fluency lessons of 4.5 hours every fortnight.
• We use only strategies that have a large evidence base behind them, some include repeated oral reading, choral reading and echo reading.

 Reading outside the classroom

• All students in years 7 to 10 have a 20 minute expert reading session every week in registration.  Teachers read to students for at least 20 minutes.
• KS3 students complete a Reading Plus lesson once a fortnight.
• Reading Plus is an online reading platform designed to assess and develop students’ reading skills.

 Reading beyond school

• All KS3 students are expected to complete Reading Plus homework. 
• Parents have access to their child’s login details to enable them to monitor progress.
• Students are able to borrow books from the ALC to read for pleasure.