Discover how reading outcomes have improved at New Road Primary thanks to Reading Plus

Reading Solutions UK met with Hannah James (HJ), English and KS2 Lead at New Road Primary, Kent, to see how their online reading development programme, Reading Plus, has impacted pupil, school, and Ofsted outcomes.

Why where your school looking for a reading programme?

HJ: “Reading has always been our weakness. We’ve consistently scored lower in reading than in any other subject. We needed something that was personalised for our students reading. So, we looked at Reading Plus and another popular programme using physical books.

“We decided to choose Reading Plus because it was better overall, had more engaging texts and provided more insight into where students were and how their reading was developing.

“We also liked that there were a lot of texts on the programme linked to curriculum areas, which is a massive bonus.”

How have you implemented the programme?

HJ: “Pupils use Reading Plus within the school timetable and can use it at home for pleasure. One of the benefits is that if pupils aren’t in, it’s easy for them to catch up because the programme stays as they left it.

“We use Reading Plus in Y3 through to Y6 – although not all pupils in Y3 access it. Y3 and Y4 access Reading Plus every day after lunch for about 30 minutes. Y5 and Y6 use the programme three times per week for about 40 minutes.

“We are fortunate that all our pupils have their own Chromebooks in class. If pupils are finished a lesson and have time, they log on to Reading Plus for additional reading development time.”

What features do you like best?

“There are many features we like about the programme, but mostly:

• The inbuilt baseline assessment.
• The information and data.
• The fact that you can put students on hold.
• The midterm assessments because it allows us to see full-class tangible results and progress.

“We had Ofsted recently, and they really liked all these aspects of Reading Plus.”

“The level of detail the programme gives you about each child provides a clear insight into their reading development. We can see pupils’ reading levels and how secure they are in comprehension, fluency, and vocabulary. From this, we can see which pupils need additional support and in which reading domain. We use this data to plan intervention groups. As a subject leader, having all that data readily available to monitor students’ progress is excellent.

How has Reading Plus impacted school outcomes?

HJ: “Our pupils have a very low cultural capital, and when Ofsted came to visit, they liked Reading Plus because the texts on Reading Plus broadened pupils’ understanding. They offer viewpoints of different places in the world, varying topic matters, traditional stories, etc.

“The range of informational and non-fiction texts help build cross-curricular knowledge. So much so that in history lessons, many children already understand the topic because they have read about it on Reading Plus. One child shouted, “Did you know Alexander the Great did this, this and this..” It made the lesson because he was contributing things, but it was knowledge he had acquired from Reading Plus. The pupils thoroughly enjoy the texts and seem to remember facts and details from stories they read years ago. As a teacher, I love Reading Plus for this, as it’s not all fiction stories. We encourage the pupils to read texts on the Stone Age, Egyptians and other historical and scientific-based texts as they link with the curriculum.”

How does Reading Plus support teaching:

HJ: “One of the benefits of having a whole class Reading Plus sessions is that it frees up the teacher’s time. That’s when we can do our one-to-one reading with the pupils.

“We can concentrate on providing individual support knowing that the rest of the class is independently reading age-appropriate texts and answering comprehension questions at their ability level.

“We have never had any issues with pupils not wanting to use Reading Plus. It’s helped us out massively during the lockdowns, and even now, when pupils are off ill, they enjoy Reading Plus, so they will continue to access it from home.”

What results have you experienced?

HJ: “Reading Plus has massively helped pupils develop their confidence and skills. Reading has always been our weakness. We’ve always scored lowest in reading in SATs, so we started using Reading Plus with our Y4s and Y5s to prepare them for a Y6 curriculum, and last year was the first year we got higher in reading than anything else. These pupils experienced the lockdowns, so we were over the moon!”