“Unless children have learned to read, the rest of the curriculum is a secret garden to which they will never enjoy access.” Government White paper, 2011
At The Hollins we put reading at the centre of school life. The importance of regular reading is encouraged in KS3 library lessons, and throughout all curriculum areas.
Our rationale
- Reading is arguably the most crucial literacy skill for cross-curricular success in secondary schools.
- The curriculum continues to be dominated by text, both in print and on screen, and our learners at The Hollins need to be able to read effectively in order to understand, make sense of and take meaning from the wide range of texts presented to them.
- The EEF states: “While most pupils begin secondary school with the general skills and knowledge needed to read accurately, fluently and with comprehension, some do not. A major part of the challenge of literacy in secondary schools is related to demands of academic reading. Whilst some pupils may learn to navigate subject specific texts naturally, others are likely to struggle, particularly when asked to work independently.”
- As a result, The Hollins must provide every pupil with reading skills that are functional, ensuring that pupils are actively engaged with complex, subject specific texts.
The benefits of reading are well documented. A growing number of studies show that promoting reading can have a major impact on children and adult and their future. Upon reviewing the research literature, Clark and Rumbold (2006) identify several main areas of the benefits to reading for pleasure:
- Reading attainment and writing ability;
- Text comprehension and grammar;
- Breadth of vocabulary;
- Positive reading attitudes;
- Greater self-confidence as a reader;
- Pleasure in reading in later life;
- General knowledge;
- A better understanding of other cultures;
- Community participation; and
- A greater insight into human nature and decision-making.
Amanda Spielman, a past “Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector”, wrote in a recent article about the importance of reading– and the need to help struggling readers as they start secondary school. Click here to read more.
So, what do we do?
At The Hollins, we know our pupils well, and we know about their different reading abilities. We do not want any pupil to be left behind in their reading, so we identify gaps in reading skills quickly and intervene when necessary. All pupils at KS3 are assessed using NGRT (New Group Reading Test) and NGST (New Group Spelling Test). The data provided ensures all teachers are aware of the reading and spelling ability of their pupils and support them accordingly. The data is carefully analysed, and we use Lexonik with our pupils who have a SAS (Standard Age Score) below 115. Some of our pupils will follow Lexonik Leap and others Lexonik Advance depending on their SAS:
- Lexonik is a literacy intervention programmes that empower pupils and their learning.
- Lexonik Leap allows pupils to close any gaps in their phonics.
- Lexonik Advance is a unique, research-based literacy intervention programme for schools, leveraging metacognition, repetition, decoding and automaticity.
- Lexonik Advance trains learners to develop phonological awareness and make links between unknown words using common prefix, stems and suffix definitions.
Since 2022, 480 of our pupils completed Lexonik Advance and made, on average, 25 months progress (decoding aspect of reading) and gained, on average, 16 standard age score.
This academic year (2024-2025), Lexonik Advance continues to be delivered to our pupils who need it at KS3. Lexonik Leap is also delivered to a group of KS3 pupils.
More information about Lexonik can be found here.
At Key Stage 3, as part of their English lessons, time is being dedicated where pupils read a class reader chosen by their teacher. In addition, once a week, they have one of their English lessons in the library where they spend half of the lesson completing some ‘Bedrock learning’, a personalised online vocabulary and grammar programme, and the other half of the library lesson is spent reading a book of their choice.
For homework, all pupils in years 7, 8, 9 as well as some pupils in years 10 and 11 have access to ‘Bedrock Learning’. This is set every week.
More information about Bedrock can be found here.
There is a reading component in all lessons in all subjects. In our school, every teacher is a teacher of reading. We want our pupils to be exposed to reading in every lesson. This greatly increases the minimum standards of reading ‘mileage’. The aim is for pupils to become more fluent readers and will aid comprehension. All teachers have received professional development on how to incorporate reading into their lessons, and how to promote reading skills to pupils. As regards vocabulary, departments routinely include explicit teaching of Tier 2 and Tier 3 vocabulary. Click here to understand the different tiers of vocabulary.
In addition, once a week, pupils are off timetable, with their form tutor where a short story is read to them and pupils complete a range of activities such as prediction, comprehension and word analysis as these are key skills for pupils to have, not only for school but also for life. Once a fortnight, during AM registration, pupils also read an article from current affairs with their form tutor.
Our school library is run by Michelle Sisson, our LRC manager, and is open to pupils at break, lunch, and after-school. We offer a diverse selection of books for pupils to choose from.
“The only thing you absolutely have to know, is the location of the library.” – Albert Einstein
The aim of our varied strategies is to have a significant impact on improving reading as we know this is so important as it dictates the extent to which a learner can access the rest of our curriculum.
