English Lead Suzanne Hayward at Farington Moss St Paul’s shares how Reading Plus was the perfect addition to their school-wide reading initiatives and played a crucial role in their excellent SATs results.
Positive impact of Reading Plus
At our school, we emphasise the importance of reading and prioritise it across our whole school. We are a reading school, and Reading Plus has been a part of that picture. We have many initiatives to promote reading and encourage reading for pleasure – Reading Plus slotted in really well.
In particular, we decided to use it for Year 6 to help with interventions. For example, we’ve currently got a couple of children struggling with reading. Therefore, we have focused Reading Plus mornings and these children use the programme when they first come into school.
Reading Plus is helping not only with reading fluency and stamina, but it is also developing their knowledge and vocabulary, which they then bring into regular lessons. Children often say, “I read about that in Reading Plus!” It is valuable to have a programme that develops cross-curricular knowledge.
Pupil enjoyment
Every Friday I give out certificates for the top five students on our class leaderboard which gets celebrated in class and shared with parents. We really try and celebrate what they are achieving on Reading Plus as the pupils really enjoy this.
Pupils’ like achieving the combos, they like the dashboard, and they like changing their avatars.
Another excellent thing about the programme is that children can choose the texts they want to read. There are lots of genres to suit everyone – I think that’s great.
Teacher enjoyment
We love it. I love it. Reading Plus is working well for our school, and it’s really helped me with the guided reading preparation.
We like the assessments Reading Plus provides. It’s great for internal reporting because teachers can see how much progress the children have made, and we can share the pupil’s results with them which they love.
Benefits of Reading Plus data collection
We use the Reading Plus data in conjunction with our internal school assessment data, which helps to form a bigger picture. The data supports our decisions about what level the children are at with their reading.
We also use it to motivate pupils. We’ll individually show the children their progress and assessments, and I particularly like the simple view of the reading grid because it is easy to interpret the data.
How Reading Plus helps children reach their SATs potential
Last year was the first year group that had SATs exams after the pandemic. Our reading results were amazing – we got 93% expected and above!
Reading Plus played a part in that. We emphasised the programme’s importance and how the children engage with it, and they enjoyed it, so that definitely helped.
Many of the high schools that our Year 6s will attend next year use Reading Plus as well. So, while they have to restart at a new school, it’s nice to have something they’re familiar with, know how to use, and know the benefit of using it.
School requirements
Farington Moss St Paul’s was looking to:
- Encourage reading for pleasure.
- Target Year 6 for SATs.
- Enhance their existing school-wide initiative to prioritise reading.
Book a brief introductory meeting online with one of our Reading Development Consultants to explore the advantages of Reading Plus for your school.
Call:
0191 389 6078 (option 1)
Email:
info@readingsolutionsuk.com