For many children and even adults, sitting down with a good book is perhaps one of the most enjoyable activities in their daily lives.
However, concerningly we are seeing a decrease in reading frequency and enjoyment among children in England, with National Literacy Trust survey data showing that just 28% of pupils read every day and less than half report that they enjoy reading (Clark et al, 2023).
As the trust lead for reading at the Mowbray Education Trust and a long-time reading advocate, these figures are deeply worrying to me. Throughout my career as an educator, I have seen first-hand how important reading is for young people. Not only does it help develop strong literacy skills, but it ignites the imagination and encourages pupils to explore new and exciting topics, often beyond subject boundaries.
Reading can also bring people together and create a community as they discuss their thoughts and feelings about a book. It can open readers’ eyes to new vocabulary and expand their capacity to create compound sentences.
There are endless doors that reading can open for young people, which is why it is vital to nurture this skill from a young age and encourage a life-long love of reading.
This year, therefore, we set out on a mission to further improve the reading provision across the trust – which encompasses five primary schools and two secondary schools – and enhance pupils’ attitudes towards reading.
Finding the time
We started by considering which elements might be the most challenging to overcome and top of our list was time.
Given the workload challenges that teachers face across the sector, we wanted to develop a strategy that was effective, but which could be embedded without putting additional pressure on our colleagues.
We employed a long-term approach to identifying and addressing different areas, looking at each element of reading in turn. This way, we were able to support our staff to define and deliver best practice while keeping workload in check.
A reading audit
To develop the strategy, we worked with experts from across our trust and externally to understand the specific barriers to reading within our schools and communities and to ensure an objective view of the most effective ways to address them.
We aimed to develop a strong baseline understanding of the reading provision at each school using an online reading audit. I spoke with leaders at each of our primaries, conducted a full reading curriculum review, and produced individual reports for each school to highlight strengths and areas for improvement.
The audit consisted of 133 questions focusing on all areas of reading including oracy, fluency, interventions, and family engagement. The online form took approximately an hour to complete. Once submitted, the answers were analysed by independent reading specialists who produced a comprehensive report outlining our schools’ strengths, weaknesses, and suggestions for improvement.
While the audit was an investment of both time and funding, it was worth it to gain a deeper understanding of the assets and needs of our schools. From there, we were able to identify focus areas to prioritise, the first of which was reciprocal reading.
Reciprocal reading
Reciprocal reading, an essential skill for any young reader as it promotes better retention and engagement. Reciprocal reading revolves around a discussion-based approach to teaching reading comprehension which uses four strategies such as predicting, clarifying, questioning, and summarizing to help children make sense of what they read and to become more confident, independent readers (for more, see EEF, 2019).
However, it can be tricky to embed, especially in classes with mixed ages and abilities. To tackle this, we worked alongside our teachers and reading leads to create a common understanding of reciprocal reading, to define how we could do it best, and to agree how it could be delivered within each unique setting.
We took advantage of support from external experts who joined our termly meetings to share their recommendations. This was immensely helpful as teachers went away full of ideas and strategies to try out at their schools.
For example, one strategy our teachers now employ is using visualisers or pre-planned PowerPoint slides displaying sections of texts rather than an entire extract. This helps to break-down the text into bite-sized pieces so pupils can process one portion of text at a time rather than trying to digest the full copy at once, deepening their understanding.
Teachers also lead discussions on vocabulary, focusing on how words appear in the context of the sentence and how this affects what they mean. Many of the vocabulary sessions utilise words that pupils have previously highlighted they needed more help understanding.
Other discussions feature targeted questioning to check and embed pupils’ comprehension. At the end of each session, pupils are asked to summarise the main idea in each section of text by writing key words or a sentence to demonstrate their knowledge.
Additionally, we have found that displaying our reciprocal reading strategies in the same place in each classroom helps pupils understand that this is a whole-school approach used in all subjects, lending to continuity and understanding.
When establishing a new strategy, patience and prudence is key. We spent time researching different resources and with an already-full primary curriculum we were careful so as not to overload teachers with too many new methods at once.
The goal is to create a collaborative and long-term approach to reciprocal reading that is slowly introduced at primaries and leads into the delivery already being provided at secondaries.
Collaboration rules
We organise meetings once a term where the reading and English leads from our primary academies meet to share their challenges and experiences and work together to define best practice on a particular topic.
Each lead then takes what they’ve learned and incorporates the newly agreed standards and practices in their school. This creates positive collaboration across the trust as our educators can learn from one another.
We have also created a trust-wide CPD offer. At the start of every academic year we map-out when and where network meetings are to be held. This allows us to consider when we can discuss calendared events such as World Book Day or standardising and moderating year 6 work. Each school hosts one of these sessions after-school during the year.
School culture
School culture and individuality are important factors for us to consider. While we wanted to create a trust-wide standard for reading curriculum, it was important that each school had the opportunity to formulate a plan that worked for the needs of their community.
We therefore designed a common language around reading that was incorporated across all schools to promote a shared understanding and appreciation for reading while still allowing schools the space to adapt it to their curriculum.
This language includes signage around schools, phrases used in lessons such as “Word of the Week” and teachers using explicit words in their instructions such as “predict” and “clarify”.
Through this common language, we were able to create links across the trust’s schools to help pupils feel part of the same learning community and foster a sense of belonging.
At the same time, teachers are able to focus on the individual needs of their pupils. It also helps ease the transition between primary and secondary education as pupils can easily recognise terms and activities.
Supporting activities
In addition to changes to the curriculum, we also equip our teachers with practical activities they can employ to boost classroom learning. This includes the aforementioned “Word of the Week” which is written on the classroom board and used within retrieval questions for pupils to answer as transition tasks between lessons. This increases their exposure to new words and encourages them to think about how the words are used.
Word games – including Adverb Charades, Splat!, and the Minister’s Cat – are also effective in helping pupils to learn and understand new words in a fun and engaging way; helping them to get excited about vocabulary.
We also wanted to find ways to supplement resources and help pupils connect with their community. We organised for all year 2 pupils across our primaries to receive a library card this year and hope to expand this to more year groups over the next few years. Additionally, we encourage our schools to plan enrichment activities at the library such as a pop-up art gallery to support cultural learning or research using books and videos for another subject in the curriculum.
Final thoughts
While we have already made positive progress toward enhancing our reading provision across the trust, our mission is still evolving. As our pupils, staff and communities continue to grow and change, our aims and activities will adapt to suit their needs.
The goal is to equip our leaders and staff with ideas, tools, and examples of how to enrich their classrooms and continue to bring reading to life in creative and dynamic ways.
Working together, we can find new and innovative methods to boost literacy and foster a life-long love for reading. Though, while we cannot always control the pleasure all pupils take from reading, we can certainly work to increase the frequency and ability of each pupil to set them up with the skills to thrive in life.
- Lucy Neath is the lead for reading at the Mowbray Education Trust. a trust of five primary and two secondary schools based in Leicestershire. Lucy has been a teacher for more than 18 years and is also a Specialist Leader of Education and an ITT subject lead for English. Mowbray Education Trust has worked on its reading strategy with external experts including from Scholastic and Renaissance Learning.
Further information & resources
- Clark, Picton & Galway: Children and young people’s reading in 2023, NLT, 2023: https://tinyurl.com/bpak6jej
- EEF: Reciprocal reading, 2019: https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/projects-and-evaluation/projects/reciprocal-reading