Teach-Secondary-Issue-14.5

Scaling new heights Andrea Miller sets out the five steps that Wey Valley Academy in Weymouth followed when seeking to embed an effective reading strategy D uring a February 2025 speech delivered at the Centre for Social Justice, Bridget Philipson announced a £1 million pound scheme to support secondary schools with their reading offer. The content of her speech largely echoed what most teachers already know – that “ Reading and writing are the cornerstones of learning. They hold the keys to the rest of the curriculum, with pupils who struggle to read so often struggling across the board.” (see tiny.cc/ts145-RS1) I’m lucky enough to be in my third year of leading on reading, at a school that’s in its sixth year of embedding reading at the heart of what we do. Last year’s Y11s were our first cohort to sit their GCSEs having experienced our reading strategy throughout their secondary education. Their results? The best in the school’s history, making us the most improved school county-wide. We are now in the enviable position of fine-tuning our reading strategy; building on and refining what we’ve found works, while discarding what doesn’t. Our key learning can now be summed up under five distinct headings. 1. SLTmust lead theway Ideally, the school’s headteacher will introduce the reading strategy to staff and offer a clear vision of why it matters. A successful reading strategy needs all staff to come fully on board, which can’t happen without highly visible leadership from both the headteacher and wider SLT. 2. Be prepared to commit adequate resources We’re sometimes visited by staff from other schools who have been tasked with leading a reading strategy themselves, but without having been given adequate resources in terms of both money and time. They lack the cash needed to buy books, arrange intervention programmes and carry out testing. Nor can they call upon the whole school time necessary for delivering additional reading. Awhole school approach to reading can only work successfully if enough cash and time is made available. For us, the school day was extended to enable 30 minutes of sacrosanct daily reading time as part of a Drop Everything And Read (DEAR) programme. We have enough reading books for every child to have a copy in their hands, and enough money to fund online literacy intervention subscriptions for those students needing extra support. Setting aside 30 minutes of daily literacy time allows us to offer a range of reading catch-up programmes, without any student having to miss out on curriculum time, or being expected to give up their free time at lunch or after school. It also means we’re able to stretch all of our students. DEAR time isn’t just about helping those who have fallen behind to catch up, but also about providing opportunities to all students to extend their reading skills. If you’ve been an English teacher for as long as I have, then you’ll know that parents bemoaning the reluctance of their teenage child to read at home isn’t as new a phenomenon as recent headlines might suggest. Making reading a compulsory part of the school day overcomes this, and serves to remind many students (and some teachers!) that reading can actually be – whisper it – rather enjoyable ... 3.Track the data We test students’ reading ages termly, and use a spreadsheet to track this data across time. This gives us a holistic picture, meaning that the student whose reading age bombed because they were feeling unwell isn’t targeted for intervention. Instead, we can see at a glance that their latest reading age is just a blip. Tracking the data in this way also means that we can target students whose reading has reached a plateau, and examine the progress of specific cohorts over time – especially those students eligible for Pupil Premium, with SEND and who have English as an additional language. 4. Share the data I’ve yet to meet the student who doesn’t want to know their calculated reading age as soon as possible after taking a test. At first, we tried to soften the blow for those found to have a poor reading age – but we’ve since learned that those students already know that they struggle with reading, and would actually appreciate some honesty, alongside a plan for supporting them. We will regularly share micro data with students in literacy intervention programmes, letting them know their ‘numbers’ with respect to reading speed, increased vocabulary and/or comprehension. The latest set of reading ages will go home on reports, and all staff have access to the master reading spreadsheet, giving them a detailed picture across time for every student. 5. Keep learning Our core literacy team consists of the deputy head, a vice principal, our SENCo and deputy SENCo, our outstanding librarian and myself, inmy role as a lead practitioner of English. We meet termly, with a focus on solving problems. Last year, “The school daywas extended to enable 30minutes of sacrosanct daily reading time” 28 teachwire.net/secondary