Literacy & Oracy

Reading is prioritised for its impact on academic and life success.

Drop Everything and Read (DEAR) is a key part of our literacy strategy. Tutor groups read together, with tutors modelling expert reading to develop students’ fluency, prosody (expression and rhythm), and clarity.

Key Elements:

• Tutor Read-Aloud: Tutors model fluent, expressive reading, demonstrating clarity and prosody.
• Popcorn Reading: Students read short sections aloud to build confidence and fluency.
• Reciprocal Reading: Strategies like predicting, clarifying, questioning, and summarising keep students actively engaged.

What a DEAR Session Looks Like:

1. Recap: Tutor revisits key ideas from the previous session activating prior knowledge.
2. Read-Aloud: Tutor models expert reading with clear articulation and expressive delivery.
3. Student Reading: Popcorn reading encourages participation and fluency practice.
4. Active Engagement: Tutors guide students through reciprocal reading strategies.
5. Discussion: Students reflect, share insights, and explore themes.

Our reading programme offers a rich variety of texts that are age-appropriate, challenging, and aligned with our school values and the Aspire programme. Each book is selected to inspire curiosity, promote empathy, and deepen understanding of the world.

Our Key Stage 3 Read to Learn lessons introduce students to a wide variety of texts chosen by subject leads and informed by student voice and the National Literacy Trust Survey. These sessions are designed to build literacy, empathy, and critical thinking.

What Do the Sessions Aim to Do?

• Encourage a love of reading through engaging, age-appropriate, and diverse texts.
• Develop key literacy skills such as comprehension, inference, vocabulary, and writing.
• Explore important themes like identity, resilience, mental health, and social justice.
• Introduce students to different genres including historical fiction, science fiction, verse novels, and gothic literature.
• Support emotional and social development by discussing characters’ experiences and challenges.

Sparx Reader is an online platform that supports your child’s reading at school and at home. It offers a wide range of books matched to their reading level and interests, helping them build confidence, improve comprehension, and enjoy reading. The system tracks progress, gives instant feedback, and helps teachers tailor support where needed—making sure every child is challenged, supported, and encouraged to grow at their own pace.

We’ve introduced Sora, our new digital reading platform, in response to feedback from the National Literacy Survey and national trends showing that 60% of students now prefer reading on digital devices like phones and tablets. Sora gives students instant access to a wide range of eBooks and audiobooks, tailored to their interests and reading levels, helping to foster independent reading habits and a lifelong love of literature in a format they enjoy.

We offer a comprehensive suite of literacy interventions to support students across all reading levels. These are designed to improve decoding, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension through personalised and targeted support. 

Assessment & Identification:

• NGRT testing: all students in Years 7-9 complete a National Group Reading Test at the start and end of year to assess their reading progress and their Standard Age Score for reading. From this assessment, we then identify students who might require further support or intervention with their literacy levels.
• YARC (York Assessment of Reading for Comprehension):
  Used to accurately identify specific reading difficulties for students who fall below a Stanine 4.  It assesses:
  • Decoding – the ability to sound out unfamiliar words
  • Sight Word Recognition – reading common words quickly and accurately
  • Comprehension – understanding and interpreting text

This allows us to tailor interventions to each student’s needs.

Key Interventions:

1. Intensive Support: Taught and Online programmes targeting phonics, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension.
2. Extra Support: Taught programme building decoding and vocabulary through structured, metacognitive strategies. Builds comprehension skills. 
3. 1:1 & Peer Reading: Supports fluency and confidence in a low-pressure setting.