In several of the schools, training for all staff included knowledge about how children learn to read, and the components of reading that proficient readers need to master. Leaders monitor the impact of interventions using regular assessment and the progress teachers see in lessons. Pupils’ reading and spelling ages are tested at the beginning, middle and end of the year. The academy also uses phonics tests at the beginning, middle and end of the year. These assessments continue for Year 9 pupils who are getting additional teaching for reading. Training supported an ethos that valued and understood the importance of investing in reading and staff working together to help struggling readers. This culture of collaboration was evident in our discussions with staff. One reading support teacher said: While there is a need for hands-on printables and workbooks, I believe a child greatly benefits from owning their own small Phonics Reader Set. To be able to hold their own books, and be able to synthesize the words without struggling, children will grow confidence! Understanding phonics will also help children know which letters to use when they are writing words.

Phonics is a way of teaching children how to read and write. It helps children hear, identify and use different sounds that distinguish one word from another in the English language. A Beka Phonics Readers start very slow, and they only introduce six sounds at once. These are perfect for readers just starting out. The text is large and accessible for the youngest readers. For example, the Little Books your child can sound out: Schools tended to stop additional support and monitoring once pupils were beyond key stage 3. Each of the schools assessed and monitored struggling readers until at least Year 9. However, none of them told us that they continued to monitor pupils’ progress beyond key stage 3, or once pupils had reached their chronological reading age. Nor did they always continue to give pupils the additional help once they had ‘graduated’ from a reading programme. This meant that the schools did not always know the longer-term impact of help, or whether pupils continued to struggle in key stage 4. Several pupils told us that they felt less enthusiastic and motivated to read for pleasure by the time they reached key stage 4. Introduction Skilled readingDiagnostic tests included DiaPhon, Diagnostic Reading Analysis, Test of Word Reading Efficiency and Fresh Start.

There is extensive research into early reading difficulties and interventions at primary level, but less with older pupils, who tend to have different needs. Research into the skills profiles of older struggling readers shows that reading difficulties can present themselves in many different ways. [footnote 18] These pupils may have specific needs related to gaps in one or more aspect of reading, such as decoding, accuracy or language comprehension. Other pupils can, on the surface, appear to be managing in class, because they have developed coping strategies which mask their reading difficulties. Schools are less likely to offer these pupils additional help. [footnote 19] Identifying reading gaps and weaknesses The academy benchmarks its whole Year 7 cohort in the summer term when pupils visit the school during an induction week. They do a single-word spelling test, a comprehension test and a reading rate assessment. This process identifies the lowest attaining 30% of pupils for further diagnostic testing. Those who are reading 1.5 years behind their chronological age are considered to be struggling readers who will have difficulty accessing the curriculum. Morning interventions are something new that we have started doing. We used to do it as part of the day, but this caused lots of disruption to normal lessons. They now have to come to school a little earlier to do the interventions. Some schools also shared information on support strategies for individual pupils. This meant there was a consistent approach to how classroom teachers and support staff incorporated the learning from interventions with specialist teachers. Monitoring the impact of additional teaching and knowing what worksTry and read other books at the same level as your child’s reading book. Look at Reading with Oxford or our free ebook library for inspiration You can see the progress they’ve made, you see it in lessons when they’re eager to read. It’s beyond the figures – we do what we do to see that palpable result. It’s not necessarily about that number on a spreadsheet or reading age – it’s about them having that confidence. First, your child will be taught the most straightforward letters and the sounds they make. For example, they will be taught that the letter ‘m’ represents an mmm sound and the letters ‘oa’ represent an oh sound.

I feel like I’m a better reader now. I think because of the help with letter patterns, it makes it more easy to break up and learn more of the words.

Without identification of their reading needs and targeted additional teaching, pupils who arrive in secondary school as poor readers are likely to continue to struggle. As the secondary curriculum places increasing demands on reading comprehension, older pupils who struggle with reading comprehension do not catch up. [footnote 2] Each year, only 10% of disadvantaged children who leave primary school with their reading below the expected standard get passes in English and mathematics at GCSE. [footnote 3] A type of analytic phonics in which children analyse phonic elements according to the phonograms in the word. A phonogram, known in linguistics as a rime, is composed of the vowel and all the sounds that follow it, such as –ake in the word cake. Children use these phonograms to learn about “word families” for example cake, make, bake, fake. Embedded phonics No one sits down with high school teachers and explains how Year 6 SATs work. For teachers that is something that is not explained. We don’t understand what the scaled score of 100 or 95 means in high school. Yes, there is definitely a gap there.

We sometimes have to put literacy over something else… This is controversial… but we’ve made the ethical judgement as a school that, in terms of access to the wider curriculum, they would benefit more from having that focus. Start with your child’s reading scheme book. These books will improve reading skills at the just the right level to give challenge and practise. Moving up through the colours or levels can be very important to children and this will help them progress Read signs and information boards as you are out and about. These often contain new vocabulary to discuss. Recipes or instructions for craft projects are also great for this and also encourage us to read with accuracy Several of the schools used repeated exposure to reading books to improve pupils’ reading fluency. They frequently used paired reading with adults or trained sixth-form pupils. Paired reading helps increase the range and amount children read, and is a way to build fluency and comprehension. To become expert readers, pupils first need to become less reliant on decoding, and fluency is improved through practice. Paired reading is one way to build children’s experience of reading as part of the transition from novice to expert reader. [footnote 32]For paired reading we’re looking at the weaker groups of readers – that’s around fluency, decoding etc – this is the best strategy to help them initially. The theory behind it is that for the readers that really struggle, you start reading aloud together… Then as you go through you’re helping them with the strategies and modelling those strategies in practical terms – what it looks like to break it down, chunk it into syllables, sound it out. As you go through their confidence builds so you’re reading less and less and they’re reading to you.