The Redhill Academy is committed to ensuring that reading sits at the heart of the curriculum. It recognises that reading is an essential skill relevant to all subject areas, a skill that gives students access to success at both school and in their future lives.
Real reading has to do with thinking, learning, and expanding a reader’s knowledge and horizons. It has to do with building on past knowledge, mastering new information, and connecting with the minds of those you’ve never met.
- Seven keys to comprehension: How to help your kids read it and get it!
Our aim is to:
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Champion the importance of reading and celebrate the advantages of reading as a life skill.
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Support the integration of all students within the mainstream classroom (support and mentoring provided by our reading programmes).
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Provide support for teachers which enables students to access mainstream teaching and learning (resources, strategies, scaffolding etc);
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Provide extra-curricular support to improve the use of reading within the context of the curriculum (development of subject specific reading styles, intervention sessions, parental links);
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Support and monitor all students;
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Ensure students meet the expectations of the full curriculum and participate fully in all tasks set.
All Redhill Academy Trust schools must also follow our 5 principles for reading excellence, to ensure that our aspirational targets are met.
PRINCIPLE 1
Developing reading skills is prioritised in every subject through Wave 1 teaching.
*Wave 1 teaching describes quality inclusive teaching which takes into account the learning needs of all the children in the classroom. This includes providing differentiated work and creating an inclusive learning environment.
PRINCIPLE 2
Opportunities to read will be built into the overall curriculum model.
PRINCIPLE 3
The progress of students' reading ages will be rigorously monitored.
PRINCIPLE 4
All students whose reading age is below chronological will be monitored and, where appropriate, given additional support to close the reading gap.
PRINCIPLE 5
Developing a reading rich curriculum will sit at the heart of Trust-wide strategic planning.
SUPPORTING OUR READING STRATEGY
To support our Reading Strategy, every KS3 student completes 15 minutes of DEAR time every day; staff also model this by reading for pleasure at this time too. All students in vertical tutor groups across KS3-KS4 also have at least 15 minutes of DEAL time every week, where staff will model fluent reading or play an audiobook.
We also follow whole-school FLUENCY and Reciprocal Reader strategies embedded across all subjects throughout the school. In addition, KS3 students attend a weekly or fortnightly library lesson where they follow the Accelerated Reader programme.
To further highlight the importance of reading, one of our student pledges requires them to read and review a variety of texts each year. We also hold regular reading events across the academic year, such as Redhill Reads, The Big Redhill Trust Reading Quiz, and Dreadlock Alien; a workshop for year 7 students who have made excellent progress with the Accelerated Reader programme throughout the year. More of our events are detailed further below on this page.
RECIPROCAL READER
| The Key Strategies | |
|---|---|
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What are we going to read about in the next section? |
 Clarify |
Which words and phrases do we need to find the meaning of? |
 Question |
Can we ask questions to help us learn more about the text? |
 Summarise |
What are the main ideas in this section? |
Predict
Importance of modelling
In whole class shared reading the emphasis may be on modelling the reciprocal reading strategies of predict, clarify, question and summarise. Here the adult not only uses the strategies but highlights and explains what they are doing, making the behaviours and strategies absolutely explicit. The adult will want to demonstrate to the students exactly what they are basing their predictions/summaries on, relating the use of the strategies back to the text. Students can be fully involved during the clarify and question stages and can be invited to add to the adult’s ideas for predicting and summarising too. They could prepare for this by talking in pairs.
DROP EVERYTHING AND READ (DEAR) TIME
- 15 minutes of reading for every student, every day.
- Role models; staff also complete 15 minutes of DEAR time alongside the class.
- DEAR time is monitored and logged via Class Charts to ensure efficient and accurate support for all students.
- Every student is accountable.
- We provide a list of recommended reads for each Key Stage alongside a termly reading list as part of the Redhill Reads competition.
DROP EVERYTHING AND LISTEN (DEAL) TIME
All students will have at least 15 minutes of DEAL time every week in vertical tutor groups. Fluent reading will be modelled by staff or through an audiobook of a story recommended chosen from our Redhill Recommended Reads.
WHOLE-SCHOOL CULTURE
- Positive promotion of reading for pleasure and reading as a life skill.
- Ensuring that the data recorded for students is accurate and up to date to ensure efficient monitoring and support.
- Reading is one of our school pledges, encouraging students to read a range of novels every year and complete a book review for at least one book per term.
- All teaching staff display what they are currently reading on their school email signature.
- Staff & Departments list the books they are currently reading via a poster on their door.
- We host Book Swaps throughout the year to encourage reading a range of literature and a diversity of topics.
- Hosting regular reading events and competitions such as The Big Trust Reading Quiz, Dread lock Alien & Redhill Reads.
FLUENCY
Key strategies of reading fluency are implemented across the curriculum with our 'FLUENCY' approach to reading:
- Follow with a ruler
- Listen to the teacher model
- Understand the vocabulary
- Echo read
- Now practise in pairs
- Choral read
- Your turn now
OLIVER TWIST: A RECIPROCAL READING JOURNEY
FLUENCY - WHOLE SCHOOL STRATEGY
READING INTERVENTIONS
We deliver the following interventions to ensure all students, whatever their background and starting points, are given the opportunity to achieve their full potential.
INTERVENTIONS SUMMARY
ACCELERATED READER
ALL STUDENTS
All students in Year 7, sets 2-5 in Year 8, and sets 4-5 in Year 9 have AR once a week or once a fortnight.
RECIPROCAL READER
ALL STUDENTS
All students are taught a school-wide approach to reading comprehension with Reciprocal Reader strategies of: predict, clarify, summarise, question.
FLUENCY
ALL STUDENTS
FLUENCY across the curriculum – All students are taught a school-wide approach to reading fluency with strategies of:
- Follow with a ruler
- Listen to the teacher model
- Understand the vocabulary
- Echo read
- Now practise in pairs
- Choral read
- Your turn now
FLUENCY INTERVENTION
Students with a reading age below their calendared age will receive small group fluency intervention with an English teacher, TA or a trained sixth form reading ambassador in their AR lesson.
Students with a reading age between 7.6 and 9 will be screened for 1:1 fluency intervention.
NO NONSENSE PHONICS
PHONICS SCREENING: students with a reading age below 7
This is reserved for students whose reading age and phonics assessment show they still experience challenges around decoding.
This is a Department for Education validated programme of synthetic phonics and is delivered by a trained specialist
KS3, KS4 & KS5 RECOMMENDED READS
Upcoming Reading Events:
Redhill Reads - September-December
The Redhill Academy Trust Book Awards - October-March
Diverse Authors Library Event - October
Poetry by Heart - October-March
Inter-house Writing Competition - October
Disability Awareness Library Event - December
Writing Workshops with Lisa Williamson, Trust Patron of Reading - January-June
Carnegie Awards - January-June
World Book Day - March
Readathon Launch - March
Big Redhill Trust Reading Quiz - March-June
Pride Library Event - June
DEAR Review Competition - June
Dreadlock Alien Visit - July
Reading Picnic - July