We are committed to instilling a passion for literature and a love of reading amongst all of our students, as part of a commitment to ensuring excellent literacy development for all of our students.
We are committed to instilling a passion for literature and a love of reading amongst all of our students, as part of a commitment to ensuring excellent literacy development for all of our students.Literacy skills will be tracked and monitored across all programme and initiatives, with intervention available where students require support. Our focus for this academic year is on developing a reading curriculum at Whitstone School.
‘We Are Readers’ focuses on three dimensions.
We are Readers
Reading Independently and for pleasure
- Sparx Reader programme.
- Tutor reading Programme. Class readers. Support pack for tutors created.
- Recommended Reads lists for all year groups.
- Celebrate Success- Sparx Leaderboard etc
- Celebrate national events such as World Book Day and World Poetry Day.
- A range of extra curricular activities including the Shadowing
- Carnegie Book Club and Book Buzz.
Supporting Readers
- See flowchart below which details how students are identified and the different interventions in place.
- Regular analysis of the data to identify students who require intervention.
- Peer Reading Programme
- Listening Project led by the Rotary Club
- All students in the lowest 20% have a 1-1 meeting to find out their barriers to reading and their motivation for success and receive some form of support.
- Tutor Reading Programme in small groups.
- Find the right books and ensure they are in the right places.
- Ensure there is an excellent collection of short reads for quick wins (Barrington Stoke, Shades, Badger, Laburnum).
- Read, Write Inc Fresh Start interventions for targeted students.
- Talisman Intervention for targeted students.
- Small group and 1-1 intervention for targeted students.
Sparx Reader test completed by all students in September and July. Access Reading Test completed by all students in September. This test assesses the following reading skills- analysis, literal comprehension, inference and vocabulary.
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All staff given information on students with a reading age below chronological on Personalised Provision. Staff are informed of any relevant strategies provided based on area of need.
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Relevant Intervention put in place based on areas of weakness (fluency, comprehension).
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Phonics Screener for anyone who was identified as having a significant gap between reading age and chronological age.
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Read, Write Inc Fresh Start intervention in place.
Reading in Subjects
“Text as the beating heart of the lesson” Mary Myatt
- Academic Reading is a part of all subjects. All subjects use the Read to Succeed strategy in the Excellent Whitstone Lesson.
- Reading across the curriculum. Each subject considers the experiences of a KS3/KS4 student in terms of reading (What? How? When? Challenge?).
- Tier 2 and 3 vocabulary explicitly taught in all subjects.
- Recommended Reading lists tailored to individual subjects