Reading and Literacy

Reading with HEART

At our school, we are committed to helping every student become a confident, fluent, and enthusiastic reader. Literacy underpins success across all subjects, and we support students while encouraging our HEART values: Honesty, Excellence, Accountability, Respect, and Teamwork.

Whole-School Literacy Focus

Reading and literacy skills are embedded across the curriculum. All staff model high-quality literacy and support students to take accountability for their learning, strive for excellence, and show respect for themselves and others.

Universal: SPARX Reader

SPARX Reader is an online adaptive reading programme, providing accessible, digital reading materials to students. It develops careful reading skills by asking students regularly to pause and answer questions about what they have read. Over time, the programme adapts to students’ tastes and abilities, gradually increasing in difficulty. Each time a student reads they earn points.

Our first aim for working with SPARX is to make the independent reading of our students visible and trackable. Our second aim is to develop the careful reading skills of our students in a way that supports attainment across the curriculum. Overall, engagement with the programme should make students’ independent reading manageable and meaningful.

Students in Year 7-9 will be engaging with the programme for one lesson per fortnight during their English lessons. In addition to this they will be expected to complete a further thirty minutes of careful reading at home per week. This will replace all other English homework. Other year groups will be engaging in the SPARX Reader programme solely during their homework time, again for 30 minutes per week, accompanying wider revision.

Reading in the Curriculum

This year we have delivered targeted CPD to staff focused on empowering them with practical strategies to improve reading within lessons, underpinned by the categorisation of students according to their specific reading needs. Training has centred on developing reading fluency across the curriculum, equipping teachers with approaches to scaffold comprehension, model fluent reading, and embed retrieval practices that reinforce prior knowledge. Staff have been guided on how to adapt tasks and questioning to support different learner profiles, ensuring that all students, including those with SEND and disadvantaged backgrounds, are able to access and engage with challenging texts. Through this CPD, teachers are increasingly confident in planning lessons that integrate reading fluency as a core element of learning, strengthening both subject knowledge and literacy outcomes.

Universal: Weekly Tutorial Reading Sessions

All students enjoy a dedicated weekly reading session. These sessions help students:

• Build fluency, confidence, and comprehension
• Develop positive reading habits
• Explore a wide range of texts
• Practice teamwork through discussion and shared reading

Specific Literacy Support Interventions through our SEN team

• Fresh Start (Read Write Inc.) – Small-group phonics support for older readers to build decoding, fluency, and confidence, encouraging excellence and accountability.
• Lexia – A personalised, computer-based programme developing reading, comprehension, vocabulary, and spelling skills, fostering honesty in self-assessment and teamwork when collaborating with staff.

Parent Reading Tips & Recommended Resources

Quick Tips:

• Set aside 10–15 minutes daily for reading
• Ask your child to summarise or discuss what they’ve read
• Encourage reading across genres – novels, newspapers, comics, or magazines

Recommended Resources:

• Local library programmes and reading challenges
• Lexia Home Connect (for students using Lexia)
• Age-appropriate book lists provided by school
• Online literacy games and story apps

Together, we help every student grow as a confident, capable, and values-driven reader.

For more information on our literacy and reading approach, please contact Ms. Claire Duckworth (Literacy Co-ordinator) or Ms. Carrol Gough (HLTA Literacy)

Links here to Fresh Start and Lexia website (for more information)