When students arrive with us in Year 7 we use GL Assessments New Group Reading tests to assess students’ reading ability. This is crucial to determine if students require additional intervention to boost their reading skills. Our main reading page highlights all of the benefits of being a skilled reader and we want to ensure students leave us with a reading age that reflects at least their chronological age.

If students do flag up as needing intervention they will then receive additional support twice a week through Personal Development time. This will be a range of small group tuition provided by teaching assistants. Depending on need students may be sharing texts using reciprocal reading strategies, following a phonics programme or developing reading fluency and comprehension skills using a web based reading programme (Reading Plus). There is also a small group for some of our English As Additional Language students and this is focused on comprehension using reciprocal reading strategies.

Students are re-tested every 6 months to assess progress. At this point students may have made sufficient progress to exit the group or they may need further intervention. Intervention will continue through school, in a range of forms, for as long as students need it.