Reading
At Bedale High School we believe that strong reading skill is essential to future happiness, success and choice.
Reading at a high level, interpreting texts and responding in writing allows young people to thrive in highly demanding GCSE exams and be ready and able to make ambitious choices for their future.
We view reading as a vital part of the curriculum for all children, regardless of ability. Through explicit teaching of reading we ensure that children are able to develop their literacy skills regardless of their starting point. All students can develop their reading skills throughout their time at school, enabling them to be successful here and in later life.
“Lacking vital literacy skills holds a person back at every stage of their life. As a child they won’t be able to succeed at school, as a young adult they will be locked out of the job market, and as a parent they won’t be able to support their own child’s learning. This intergenerational cycle makes social mobility and a fairer society more difficult.”
National Literacy Trust
Our Approach
Our approach to developing reading can be summarised into three key strands:
Principles Reading is fundamental to the life choices of our students.
Reading is fundamental to the life choices of our students. Without the ability to read at a high level, interpret text and respond in written form, young people cannot begin to access the highly demanding GCSE exams let alone be ready and prepared to make ambitious choices for their future. Simply, without reading skills our students will move into the adult world at a significant disadvantage and ill equipped to tackle the challenges that will come their way successfully.
Diagnostic All students complete New Group Reading Test (NGRT) twice a year.
All students complete New Group Reading Test (NGRT) twice a year. Those receiving additional intervention complete a third diagnostic test.
| All | Year 7 | Year 8 | Year 9 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| At Age | 71% | 77% | 69% | 70% |
| Within 18 Months | 14% | 10% | 18% | 12% |
| Significantly Below | 12% | 9% | 10% | 16% |
| Below 8 Years | 3% | 4% | 2% | 2% |
Intervention Reading for Pleasure, Guided Reading, Reading Lessons, Reading Across the Curriculum, Before/During/After, Data to inform planning, Banding.
Reading for Pleasure
Students read independently & for pleasure. There is a dedicated session during form time, as well as being part of English homework. This is recorded and tracked in Reading Passports. Students have access to the library for selection of books.
Guided Reading
All KS3 students take part in a guided reading session during form time. Students are read to by a fluent 'expert reader - the teacher -, explore new vocabulary, and consider the wider themes of the text. Each year group enjoys a different text, based on level of challenge and tied into topics from across their curriculum.
Reading Lessons
All KS3 students have a fortnightly reading lesson where a different text is shared and explored each session, focusing on comprehension skills, inference skills and critical thinking.
Reading for Across the curriculum
Subject areas across the curriculum ensure that children engage with a range of age appropriate and challenging texts in lessons. Reading is scaffolded to allow students to make challenging texts appropriate to all students.
Before/During/After
When engaging with text, teachers use an approach of before, during and after. This ensures that an activity to ensure student understanding encompasses the reading of the text.
Data to inform planning
Student reading ability is shared with teachers and used to inform planning and ensure appropriate scaffolding and differentiation is in place to support weaker and challenge stronger readers.
Banding
Students are placed in academic "bands" based on their ability. This allows us to group students of similar reading ability together to ensure high level of appropriate challenge for all students in all lessons.
Intervention Lexia - Computer based reading intervention focusing primarily on sentence and word level understanding.
Lexia - Computer based reading intervention that provides personalized reading resource focusing primarily on sentence and word level understanding.
Students who require additional support are enrolled onto Lexia Power Up for a term. Students access Lexia during form time and are set homework to continue intervention at home.
Intervention Small group "fix it reading" led by Literacy Lead, focusing primarily on passage comprehension.
Students complete small group "fix it reading" led by Literacy Lead. This 12-lesson evidenced based reading intervention aims to build confidence with reading and focuses primarily on passage comprehension.
Intervention Students under 8 years in reading age are referred to our SEN department, focusing primarily on phonics and decoding of words.
Students who are diagnosed to be under 8 years in their reading age are referred to our SEN department for further diagnostic and intervention.
Students receive a LASS test to further diagnose issue and subsequent intervention focusing primarily on phonics and decoding of words.
Vocabulary Building
Knowing words is vital to students engaging with learning and forming deeper understanding. Put simply, the more words students know and are able to use correctly, the more likely they are to be successful.
Students are encouraged to develop and use an expansive vocabulary in all lessons. Subject areas identify vital vocabulary which is explicitly taught in lessons and students are rewarded for using this correctly in written responses. This is supported in vocabulary building exercises delivered as part of our form time activities.
In addition, our marking approach ensures that students are using complex words correctly and spelling is as accurate as possible.
Reading for Understanding and Pleasure
The following are among our strategies to enable students to read for understanding and pleasure:
- Timetabled reading lessons for all Key Stage 3 students
- Use of ‘Before, During, After” activities to ensure that students explicitly engage with texts whenever they read in lesson.
- We treat reading like other learning activities and think carefully about how accessible a text is. We provide appropriate scaffolds to unlock complex texts for students.
- We promote a love of reading through our reading passports, the school library and a range of reading activities.
Additional Supported Intervention
In order to ensure that all students are able to read an appropriate level, we complete a reading age diagnostic twice a year.
Where the diagnostic raises potential issues in reading, we ensure that students receive support through the following methods.
a) Engaging with our SEN team to further investigate potential learning barriers.
b) Our banding structure allows some students to be placed in smaller groups to ensure that students can access additional literacy support in key lessons.
c) Enrolling on an additional programme of support such as small group intervention, reciprocal reading or paired reading.
About Us
Bedale High School is a high performing coeducational, community school situated on Fitzalan Road, Bedale, North Yorkshire, England. Our Core Values of Courage, Commitment and Compassion ensure that our students operate in a nurturing school environment and go on to achieve great success at the end of year 11.
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