Schools had to make difficult decisions about when to timetable additional reading lessons. Each of the schools had considered when to give extra teaching, and whether pupils should miss lessons or not. There was no consensus about the best time in the day for additional reading lessons. This was a hard decision for leaders and one not taken lightly, as this senior leader explained: Diagnostic tests included DiaPhon, Diagnostic Reading Analysis, Test of Word Reading Efficiency and Fresh Start.

I am constantly being approached for advice. For example, the PE [physical education] department was thinking about displays and resources in the context of reading. After training they decided to make changes to resources in regard to reading. The maths [mathematics] department were thinking about wording questions, drawing attention to keywords, getting students to read them aloud. Sharing information about struggling readers Morning interventions are something new that we have started doing. We used to do it as part of the day, but this caused lots of disruption to normal lessons. They now have to come to school a little earlier to do the interventions. During focus groups, inspectors told us that although schools assessed pupils’ reading, it was not always clear how these assessments were used or what their purpose was. They described how programmes like Accelerated Reader [footnote 31] are regularly used by secondary schools to monitor and assess reading, but said that the information from these programmes was not used systematically in the school curriculum. In schools that get safeguarding right, leaders create a culture that safeguarding is “everyone’s business, all of the time”. In this school, leaders seem to have done the same with reading. Everyone we spoke to appeared to view teaching pupils to read – and to read well, with confidence and fluency – in this way. Identifying pupils’ reading gaps When you discover that your child has learned their letter sounds, and you feel that he/she is ready to begin combining those sounds to create words, then he/she is ready for a Phonics Reader Set. And I wholeheartedly recommend any of the below 10 Sets to you today! I have weighed pros and cons for each reader, and I share my favorites. The most important thing we need to ask ourselves is:A Quigley and R Coleman, ‘Improving literacy in secondary schools: guidance report’, Education Endowment Foundation, 2019. ↩ I think once we’ve got our reading age where it’s supposed to be they just expect us to get it from there and keep it at that point. The research was approved by Ofsted’s research ethics committee and we got informed consent from everyone we spoke with, including pupils and their parents. What we learned The school uses a baseline standardised reading test to screen all new pupils. This gives each pupil a reading age, and identifies which pupils may need additional teaching. The school also tests all new pupils’ spelling and comprehension, and assesses foundational skills such as phonics, word recognition and fluency. All Year 7 pupils do a cognitive ability test in the first 2 weeks of the autumn term. The strengths of this programme being it is very diagnostic, so is absolutely bespoke for every pupil on it.

In one school, we heard how engaging with particular groups, such as struggling readers, was part of the librarian’s performance targets. The librarian created opportunities for struggling readers to use the library more regularly, and frequently had the very weakest readers in the library. ConclusionThis kind of detailed assessment was important to ‘try to work out what the barriers are’ as one reading support teacher explained. Senior leaders prioritised reading. They invested in additional, bespoke help for struggling readers and training for staff who taught reading. Leaders made sure that this help was part of a well-thought-out curriculum and a wider school reading strategy for all pupils to become proficient readers. They communicated this commitment to all staff, raising the visibility of reading across the school so that all staff knew the part they played in supporting struggling readers. These schools recognised that although cross-curricular, school-wide initiatives improved reading, there were pupils who first needed specific teaching in phonics. Once pupils could read accurately, they were better able to access and benefit from what schools did to improve the reading of all pupils. There’s no coordinated strategy for that vital group of pupils to access the curriculum because their reading skill is so low. The English department identify their weak readers and have their own strategy about what to do in English lessons, but not actually talking to the SENCo [special educational needs coordinator]. There’s no kind of synergy there.’ Once children can decode words, they then need to be able to read and recognise words and their meanings accurately, and with ease, to become fluent readers. [footnote 10] Fluent reading is described as an extension of decoding, and requires accuracy, pace and expression. [footnote 11]

CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words are progressively learned with delightful, full-colored pictures. The only downside to these readers (and it’s a big issue to note) is that Abeka’s program learns all the vowels in their first little book. Learning the vowels — because they all sound so similar to a child just becoming phonologically aware — is not beneficial for most children. The high status given to reading by leaders created a culture where all departments demonstrated a similar commitment to reading. Staff did not see reading as solely the responsibility of the English department. In 2 of the schools, curriculum subject leaders had a focus on reading in their departmental development plans. These were matched to the needs of struggling readers as well as other pupils. Departments had reading leads who discussed reading at staff meetings, and led professional development on reading.However, this kind of teaching matched to need was described in only 4 of the 30 inspection reports we analysed. This project was an in-depth qualitative study. The aim was to understand what schools did and why, rather than measure the impact of additional teaching for struggling readers. There was also no intention to assess the quality of support for struggling readers or reading support across the school. The aim was to develop an understanding of what effective practice might look like, to support other secondary schools and inform inspection practice. What pupils said also confirmed the schools’ use of diagnostic reading tests and targeted teaching for specific components of reading. A pupil in Year 7 said the school had assessed his reading and put in place additional teaching to improve his reading fluency. A popular approach in Scotland, this method is associated with the teaching of reading in which the phonemes associated with particular graphemes are not pronounced in isolation. Children identify (analyse) the common phoneme in a set of words in which each word contains the phoneme under study. For example, teacher and pupils discuss how the following words are alike: pat, park, push and pen. Analogy phonics We read to our children every day, but they rely on us to read to them. Reading a book on their own will make all the difference in their learning and desire to read! Oh the first joy to see them read their own book for the first time!

The rationale for this work lies in the need for all pupils to leave school as successful readers and with GCSE English at grade 4 or above. It is essential for pupils to be able to read proficiently, so they can access post-compulsory education and participate fully in society. Our education recovery reports also show that learning loss as a result of school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic is making reading a greater issue in secondary schools. [footnote 22]This school is a mixed urban academy converter with a sixth form. It has 1,600 pupils, of whom 24% speak English as an additional language. Around 34% are disadvantaged. Teachers said struggling readers could see they were improving, and this gave them the confidence and motivation to read more. For instance, in one school, support staff described how one pupil was ‘really proud because he’s moved from being really struggling to being confident enough to read aloud in front of older students.’ Then the children will really start to read! They will learn to recognise the different letters or pairs of letters (graphemes) in a word, say the separate sounds ( phonemes) slowly, then put ( blend) them together. For example, they will be taught that the word ‘boat’ can be separated out ( segmented) into ‘b-oa-t’ which represents the sounds bbb-oh– ttt. They can blend these sounds into the word ‘boat’ The longer they are taking to read something the less likely they are to be taking it in fully. Lots of omissions, replacements of words – we call it misreading and careless reading. It’s really common. It may not seem important but it can have a big impact on comprehension and change the entire meaning. Another invaluable tool that I also recommend is the moveable alphabet. This allows your child to build letters as he/she begins to sound out words. Having this tactile element can be incredibly beneficial for students beginning to decode and synthesize words.