Discover how Reading Plus data now informs all reading strategies at Park View Primary Academy

We caught up with Jo Stephenson, English Lead and Year 6 Teacher from Park View Primary Academy, who have been using Reading Plus since November 2020. Here, Jo discusses how the online reading programme has informed the school’s reading strategy, increased engagement levels, and recovered lost learning. Read on to find out more.

Why Reading Plus?

Our reading levels have historically been low but were slowly improving, so we were looking for strategies to accelerate this progress.

We received a very good recommendation for Reading Plus and chose the programme because we felt that the in-depth analysis and the tracking of the children’s progress so forensically, would benefit our school’s reading strategies.

Increased pupil engagement

Reading Plus has certainly improved the engagement of reading within KS2 [120 pupils] who have read a combined 14 million words since the end of November 2020.

Our pupils all love using Reading Plus. They see the wonderful progress they are making, and this spurs them on even more. I have noticed children talking about the texts they are currently reading, and they also mention texts they have read previously in lessons as reference points.

Accelerated reading development

Reading Plus is now embedded into Park View’s reading strategy and is used daily. The progress our pupils are making is well above average in most cases.  Year 5 have currently made 3.4 average comprehension gains in years and Year 6 have made 3.3 average comprehension gains in years.

Using Reading Plus data to inform the curriculum

The baseline assessment on Reading Plus was great as we had a starting point to work from. We can now measure progress in a way that informs the next steps.

Our tracking system has evolved over the last few months to incorporate the data from Reading Plus. We now level our books in school using Lexile scores and this is also reflected in our WCR lessons. The data informs all our other reading strategies and approaches now.

A tool to recover lost learning

I would say we have 95% of KS2 children using Reading Plus every day. We build it into our lesson time as well as encouraging children to use it at home as well. Our children have recovered lost learning in reading thanks to Reading Plus.

What level of support did you receive from Reading Solutions?

We have had a fantastic amount of support from the Reading Solutions Customer Support Team. Second, to none, I would say. I have even been sent resources to help with pedagogy which was a lovely bonus.

What do you like most about the programme?

As a teacher I like Reading Plus for several reasons:

• The children enjoy reading using the programme.
• The vocabulary element is a fantastic tool.
• The ability to track the data so closely.