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Happy Reading Everyone!
4th November 2022
Welcome to the end of the first week back. The half term break seems a distant memory now as we all gather the momentum required to survive Autumn 2.
The half term though was not without event in the educational world with us gaining our 5th Secretary of State in as many months. Gillian Keegan has been appointed to lead education, so we await news of any policy initiatives.
Whilst the political world of education has been changing, Ofsted were also busy over half term, releasing their latest report on secondary reading and the importance it has in our pupil’s lives. I was pleased to read in the report all of the things that we recently discussed with secondary reading leads in our trust. Our reading leads are ahead of the game in terms of identifying what already happens in our schools and where we need to focus next.
Reading is and will remain a key priority across all our trust schools. Our primaries have been on a journey of developing the teaching and learning of reading, knowing that nationally, 25% of pupils leave primary school below age related expectations for reading. The impact of this for these pupils is far reaching as they continue to struggle to access the curriculum.
The key findings in the research which was based on how six high- performing secondary schools provided targeted support for pupils in reading include the following:
- Leadership of reading needs to be ‘at senior level’ Ofsted found in each of the six schools, leadership of reading was led by a deputy head or literacy lead who were part of the senior leadership team.
- Test children’s reading. Schools need to understand the importance of accurately identifying pupil’s reading needs through screening and diagnostic testing across the whole of year 7.
- Train staff on early reading. In the six schools, staff had external training to teach reading and some had intensive training courses of phonics and reading fluency. The schools also utilised the expertise of primary teachers, with two employing primary-trained teachers to teach struggling readers and train staff.
- Secondary schools employed a skilled librarian -schools told Ofsted about the importance of having “highly skilled” librarians to help purchase books and direct pupils to “books they found interesting”.
- Support for reading stops at Year 9, why? Ofsted found schools did not “always know the longer-term impact of help” because the assessment and monitoring stopped at the end of year 9. However, several pupils told inspectors they felt “less enthusiastic and motivated to read for pleasure” in key stage 4. A wider analysis of recently inspected secondary schools found the lack of such support in key stage 4 was widespread.
- Staff need to be aware that a significant number of pupils lack the basics with 25% of pupils nationally leaving primary school below the expected level, 1 in 4 pupils need support.
Happy reading everyone!
Wishing you a great half term ahead
Kathryn Krynicki, Director of Education, Learning Partners
Welcome to the end of the first week back. The half term break seems a distant memory now as we all gather the momentum required to survive Autumn 2.
The half term though was not without event in the educational world with us gaining our 5th Secretary of State in as many months. Gillian Keegan has been appointed to lead education, so we await news of any policy initiatives.
Whilst the political world of education has been changing, Ofsted were also busy over half term, releasing their latest report on secondary reading and the importance it has in our pupil’s lives. I was pleased to read in the report all of the things that we recently discussed with secondary reading leads in our trust. Our reading leads are ahead of the game in terms of identifying what already happens in our schools and where we need to focus next.
Reading is and will remain a key priority across all our trust schools. Our primaries have been on a journey of developing the teaching and learning of reading, knowing that nationally, 25% of pupils leave primary school below age related expectations for reading. The impact of this for these pupils is far reaching as they continue to struggle to access the curriculum.
The key findings in the research which was based on how six high- performing secondary schools provided targeted support for pupils in reading include the following:
- Leadership of reading needs to be ‘at senior level’ Ofsted found in each of the six schools, leadership of reading was led by a deputy head or literacy lead who were part of the senior leadership team.
- Test children’s reading. Schools need to understand the importance of accurately identifying pupil’s reading needs through screening and diagnostic testing across the whole of year 7.
- Train staff on early reading. In the six schools, staff had external training to teach reading and some had intensive training courses of phonics and reading fluency. The schools also utilised the expertise of primary teachers, with two employing primary-trained teachers to teach struggling readers and train staff.
- Secondary schools employed a skilled librarian -schools told Ofsted about the importance of having “highly skilled” librarians to help purchase books and direct pupils to “books they found interesting”.
- Support for reading stops at Year 9, why? Ofsted found schools did not “always know the longer-term impact of help” because the assessment and monitoring stopped at the end of year 9. However, several pupils told inspectors they felt “less enthusiastic and motivated to read for pleasure” in key stage 4. A wider analysis of recently inspected secondary schools found the lack of such support in key stage 4 was widespread.
- Staff need to be aware that a significant number of pupils lack the basics with 25% of pupils nationally leaving primary school below the expected level, 1 in 4 pupils need support.
Happy reading everyone!
Wishing you a great half term ahead
Kathryn Krynicki, Director of Education, Learning Partners
