Discover how Reading Plus increased motivation, supported teaching and helped with reading intervention at St Fidelis Catholic Primary School

Annabel Phelan, English Leader from St Fidelis Catholic Primary School, shares how Reading Plus has increased motivation, supported teaching and helped with reading intervention.

Why was your school looking for help with reading?

We were looking for a reading activity and programme for children to carry out independently in class while the teacher could have daily guided reading sessions with targeted groups.

Additionally, reading fluency has always been an issue for our children, and we wanted to improve that.

Why Reading Plus?

After doing some research and enquiring further, I saw how Reading Plus was used in another school and was amazed by the level of engagement from the children and the progress they were making from regular use of the programme.

I then realised Reading Plus was the perfect fit for what we were looking for.

Successful trial and implementation

The implementation process was so easy. A representative from Reading Solutions UK assisted with the roll-out in one class so we could try the programme on a free four-week trial.

After the trial’s success, we decided to implement the programme in all our key stage 2 classes.  It was easy for me, as the English Lead, to then support class teachers with the initial set-up and the programme’s benchmark assessment.

Ongoing training and support for staff

The support from the Customer Support Team is brilliant. Whenever I have emailed with a query, the response has always been quick, thorough, and helpful.

There is also the opportunity to book further free training sessions, either for individual staff (which has been helpful with new staff starting over the lockdown periods) or for full staff training to explain parts of the programme in more detail.

Expanding knowledge through texts

Reading engagement was generally good for children reading fiction books, but our children weren’t being exposed to many non-fiction texts. I love that children can choose the text they are interested in and are more exposed to different genres.

Features and tools for motivation and improvement

Children enjoy using the programme and achieving their combos and moving up in their levels, which motivates them to read more and get better.

They get instant feedback when answering comprehension or vocabulary questions and are rewarded straight away if they succeed. The Guided Window is excellent for keeping children on track and focused on the text. The re-reads are also a perfect tool for our lower ability children.

Supporting teachers

The baseline assessment has been a valuable tool to help teachers identify key children in the guided reading sessions, general group, and comprehension groups who need additional support with specific areas of reading.

Positive outcomes

We have noticed a positive correlation between the Reading Plus baseline and comprehension scores in school assessments. The positive outcomes and connections on reading fluency and comprehension due to Reading Plus are clear to us.

Does your school implement any internal strategies to keep students engaged?

We have a hot chocolate incentive! Each week, I go round the key stage 2 classes and award a child on their Reading Plus progress with a letter written from our Head of School and a sachet of hot chocolate to enjoy at home when they are completing their next Reading Plus session.

I think Year 3 are the most excited about receiving the award, so they turn it into a fierce competition!