Reading at the heart of our school provision
At Ark Pioneer we know reading is incredibly important to success in school and life beyond. We support every pupil that joins us to read at their chronological age, to take pleasure in their reading and to understand the positive impact reading can have on their lives.
This journey starts before pupils join us in Year 7 with our summer reading challenge – a summer reading project which encourages and challenges them during the summer break. We encourage all pupils to have a book with them on their desk through the day, and should there be an opportunity to read, they can delve into their current novel.
Reading is at the heart of our English lessons, with 2 'Reading for Pleasure' lessons in year 7 and 8 per week and one in year 9. During these lessons, we explore age-appropriate, culturally diverse literature, exposing pupils to reading aloud while exploring themes, character development and different writing styles. All students in years 7-10 complete 3 reading sessions in their morning form time (Values and Character). Books were chosen to be age appropriate and engaging to promote a love of reading. Sessions focused on exposure to reading and ensured that the focus of each session was as much time reading as possible, rather than recall tasks and discussion.
Competitions and events embracing reading, writing and oracy take place regularly through the year at Pioneer. These include poetry slams; Kahoot quiz; Roald Dahl Day quiz; ’12 word story’ writing competition; World Book Day events; visit by manga artist Sonia Leong; reward trip to Waterstones Barnet; reward trip to a creative writing workshop at the British Library (to take place in July)
We run a book club in Year 8. Last academic year we had Year 8 pupils take part part in a weekly book club trial lasting from October to February, run in collaboration with Harper Collins. The trial tested the impact of a social reading environment on children’s motivation to read. Post trial data showed that 71% of Pioneer pupils said that they were reading more since starting book club, and 76% said book club had been a worthwhile experience. Quotes from pupils in answer to the question ‘do you think that taking part in book club has changed the way you feel about books or reading?’ “I’ve always like reading but I feel like I had already read many of the ones I had at home so I got to choose different books every week”, “I never used to read books, now I do”, “Before, I wasn’t really interested in reading because of all the previous books I read, but now that I know there are some great books I can enjoy”
Carnegie Shadowing Award book club also runs. Year 7 and Year 9 pupils take part in a weekly lunchtime book club, reading and discussing books nominated for the Carnegie Award for Writing. Pupils collaborate to make a presentation on one of the books and were able to watch a livestream talk by a nominated author at an event for Barnet schools.
Supporting reading age development
At the start of each academic year, all pupils complete a Reading Age assessment, which allows us to identify barriers to reading early on. Whilst all pupils receive the offer of additional English with lessons focused on Reading for Pleasure, some pupils require additional support beyond this, and we provide that support.
We have invested in tried and tested programmes proven to accelerate progress with reading and literacy, such as ‘Lexia’ reading support programme and ‘Read Write Inc: Fresh Start’ phonics programme which we offer to pupils identified as needing this additional support.
|
Year Group |
What is the focus of intervention? |
How is intervention delivered? |
|
7 |
Ensure pupils catch up to their chronological reading age through phonics |
Read Write Inc Lexia - Runs as an interventions for all pupils who are 2+ years below their chronological age. Pupils are grouped into small interventions classes of 3-10 pupils and complete 50 minutes of Lexia week. Phonics - Targets all pupils whose reading age is below 9 yrs 6 months. Pupils have 3-4 sessions of phonics a week, delivered by a fully trained GTA or teacher, to help them rapidly improve their reading ability. KS5 Reading mentors - A team of 16 KS5 pupils do 1-2-1 reading mentoring with our weakest pupils who need extra practice, particularly around fluency and confident. Pupils are withdrawn from lessons for 30 minutes a week and do guided reading with their mentor, who models intonation and prosody to them
|
|
8 |
Ensure pupils catch up to their chronological reading age through more developed reading and comprehension |
Lexia Phonics KS5 Reading mentors Read Write Inc where required |
|
9 |
Ensure pupils develop the writing skills and comprehension required for necessary attainment in English |
Lexia Read Write inc Phonics KS5 Reading mentors English Language lessons |
|
10 |
Ensure pupils comprehend archaic words, structures and conventions of meaning in GCSE texts including A Christmas Carol, an Inspector Calls and Poetry. Pre-teach GCSE texts so that pupils in intervention experience the confident success when reading in the mainstream classroom. Support pupils to develop a metacognitive awareness of their comprehension and inferential reading so that they know when and how to ask for help. |
Guided annotation on key extracts from GCSE texts in small groups Tuition in small groups in non-fiction texts pertaining to GCSE texts (summaries and contextualising criticism) Accountable Individual Reading in small group tuition |
Developing disciplinary literacy
Our approach to improving literacy across Pioneer is informed by the Educational Endowment Foundations meta-study analysis ‘Improving Literacy in Secondary Schools’. In line with this we have thought strategically about our English curriculum & 'Reading for Pleasure' lessons and research-backed interventions - as set out above - and also planned carefully our approach to developing disciplinary literacy.
Disciplinary literacy is an approach to improving literacy across the curriculum. It recognises that literacy skills are both general and subject specific, emphasising the value of supporting teachers of every subject to teach pupils how to read, write and communicate effectively.
As pupils progress through an increasingly specialised secondary school curriculum, there is a growing need to ensure that pupils are trained to access the academic language and conventions of different subjects. Strategies grounded in disciplinary literacy aim to meet this need, building on the premise that each subject has its own unique language, ways of knowing, doing, and communicating. By anchoring literacy clearly in subjects, disciplinary literacy aims to support pupils to develop relevant ‘disciplinary habits of mind’.
Our subject leads plan carefully how to support pupils to develop literacy specific to their subject. For example, in maths, our teachers explicitly teach mathematical vocabulary and specific reading strategies for written problems to support pupils to read like mathematicians.