Numeracy & Literacy
Reading
Reading across the Curriculum
At Goole Academy, we place reading at the heart of our curriculum. We want our students to be able to access the full curriculum offering by developing a reading programme that focuses on accuracy, automaticity (speed, fluency), prosody (expression, emphasis and tone) and a love of reading.
The English secondary reading strategy is delivered via English lessons, where all students are given access to a range of fiction and non-fiction texts. Students read and reread texts to find layers of meaning and increase understanding. Each text also focuses on a key theme to encourage our students’ personal development.
Students partake in Read to Succeed which is five minutes of reading at the start of every year 7-9 English lesson.
All staff are responsible for literacy across the curriculum. Staff have been trained in Disciplinary Reading which puts reading skills at the forefront of all learning. Staff have a common toolkit to promote reading skills within their subject:
“Word of the Week” introduces students to a range of new vocabulary that can be used across all subjects. A robust vocabulary improves all areas of communication — listening, speaking, reading and writing. Vocabulary growth is directly related to school achievement.
Reading Interventions
On entry to year 7, those students whose literacy skills need improvement are provided with extra support through targeted intervention on a rotation basis. This ensures that they still have access to a broad and balanced curriculum. We use Reading Plus and Rapid Plus programmes. Our students most in need of literacy support follow a phonics pathway using Fresh Start Phonics.
Parents of those students who are offered additional support are invited to attend a Reading Information Evening in the first term of Year 7 which provides details of the interventions on offer and how these can benefit students and an opportunity to talk to relevant staff and ask any questions.
All students in Years 7 and 8 are assessed using GL Assessment’s reading test https://www.gl-assessment.co.uk/products/new-group-reading-test-ngrt .The assessment helps highlight which students require support with their reading. This support is provided in different ways depending on the need of each student. This could include an extra timetabled literacy intervention lesson, focusing on key literacy skills and comprehension and some students will receive additional reading time in the library.
Reading Plus is a targeted intervention for students in years 7 and 8 which aims to develop comprehension and efficiency in reading and adapts to offer support and texts that are appropriate for the reading level of each individual learner.
Reading for Pleasure
Once a week the whole of Key Stage 3 take part in “Drop Everything And Read”. This is fifteen minutes of reading at the beginning of a lesson which falls on a different period each week. Our strongest readers have the opportunity to enjoy their own choice of book during this time. After the reading session, students are encouraged to talk about and explain what they have read. In this way students develop their skills of oracy, learning to express their opinions thoughtfully and persuasively.
During this time, students who will benefit from hearing good reading being modelled are read to by their class teacher with a story unfolding chapter by chapter every week as part of an on-going teacher ‘read-aloud’
Key Stage 3 students are also read to by their tutors every week from one of the books in their Year Group’s current ‘Reading Route’ to model confident and expressive reading.