Reading

At GWA we agree with Dr. Seuss; 

Encouraging a lifelong love of reading is something we are passionate about.

We will work with the National Literacy Trust to be a key player in their Swindon Literacy Hub. The NLT will help shape and drive our literacy provision and guide our work in this area, adding to our proposals listed here as appropriate. 

An Academy Literacy Lead has been appointed with responsibility for this.  All students in KS3 will read for 20 minutes each day in school. This will be facilitated by Accelerated Reader, which directs students towards a range of suitably challenging books and provides incentives for regular reading.  Our school library system, Reading Cloud, complements Accelerated Reader and allows students to quickly find books suitable to their reading age and interests and to explore what others have said about what they have been reading.  We also use Bedrock Vocabluary,  an online programme which is proven to expose pupils to challenging vocabulary and makes them think deeply about what words mean. The Bedrock Vocabulary assessments allow us to track progress and regularly provides us with invaluable feedback on each student, helping us to ensure not only that they read, but that they understand. 

We also ensure literacy skills are promoted across GWA, ensuring key grammar and punctuation skills receive consistent attention in all subjects, so that students realise that reading and writing skills are fundamental to their progress. Regular whole school events, such as author visits, book clubs, reading and spelling competitions will also be organised. 

Progress in reading and communication will be measured by regular reading and spelling age assessments. 

A proportion of students will need further support with their literacy in order to close the gap between their reading and chronological age. A range of strategies will be in place to help this happen, personalised to individual students. These will be overseen by the Academy Literacy Lead and SENDCo, and include: 

  • reading out loud to adults during the daily reading time 
  • cross-curricular support materials and strategies for all teachers to use consistently to support reading, writing and communication 
  • consideration of use of one MFL period each week to support literacy skills, if it is agreed that a small cohort of students would benefit from this 
  • encouraging students to attend the Accelerated Reader enrichment sessions where support with reading will be available 
  • where necessary for key students, drawing up an individual reading support plan which details one-to-one support and how it may be provided 
  • working with parents to encourage further reading to take place at home