Reading Strategy

At Oasis Academy Wintringham, the development of literacy skills across all curriculum areas is seen as a priority and this is a shared commitment of every member of staff, no matter what subject they teach. Having confident literary skills is the key to unlocking the future for our young people.

Accelerated Reader has been fully implemented for all students in Years 7-9 to develop their comprehension when reading fiction/non-fiction texts. A student's ZPD (Zone of Proximal Development) is identified via an online adaptive reading age test; this then generates a reading range which students select texts from. The Academy Learning Resource Centre has an extensive range of texts which cover the full range of Renaissance levels and students select colour coded, appropriate texts and then read them during their one-hour LRC lesson; as well as a 30-minute reading session twice per week in their tutor periods. Students are also set a 30-minute reading session as homework.

Once a student has completed a test, they take an online Reading Practice Quiz based on the book they have read. These quizzes focus on fine detail from the texts and so students cannot pass unless they have fully understood what they have read. Once students are successful, when quizzing, they are then encouraged to read a more challenging text thereby developing their reading skills. Staff can monitor the number of quizzes students take as well as their book levels and success rate to ensure progress is being made. Students also complete reading record books to track their progress and record new vocabulary they encounter. This is also the place where staff record comments as they listen to students read aloud; in doing so they are developing their fluency as well as their comprehension.

Intervention

At Oasis Academy Wintringham, we ensure that all students receive the support they need to flourish. All students undertake a reading assessment each year so we can identify struggling readers. We take a graduated approach to intervention to ensure that appropriate, meaningful and measurable interventions are targeted at the right students to drive accelerated progress in literacy and ensure that all students can make significant progress, regardless of their entry point to the secondary phase.

A graduated approach is one in which levels of support and intervention increase in intensity matched to need:

• Wave 1 is the universal, whole-school approach, that will meet need the needs of the majority of students. At Oasis Academy Wintringham, this includes subject-specific strategies in lessons to promote progress in reading, writing and oracy, and our Accelerated Reader programme.
• Wave 2 provides targeted intervention for students working below age-related expectations, who need additional, structured group interventions to catch up with their peers. At Oasis Academy Wintringham, this includes our Lexia programme. This online intervention provides students with additional opportunities to develop skills in phonics, reading fluency, comprehension, vocabulary, and language concepts pitched to their needs, with support and personalised intervention provided by a trained LSA.
• Wave 3 provides specialist and more intensive intervention for a very small group of students working significantly below age-related expectations. At Oasis Academy Wintringham, we offer the Fresh Start Phonics intervention programme. This curriculum provides students with additional opportunities to develop skills in phonological awareness, phonics, reading fluency, comprehension, vocabulary, and spelling, delivered by a highly trained teacher, with additional support from Ruth Miskin to refine and evaluate the intervention throughout the year. The students are assessed every half-term to ensure they are making good progress, supporting them to flourish and succeed at school.