@FearnhillSchool has recently gone from RI to Good and our approach to reading across school was mentioned in the report as a strength. This thread outlines the way we run reading interventions and outlines some of the challenges and things that worked for us 🧵
We started by training a few key people to deliver reading fluency/echo reading sessions and administer the YARC test. Huge thanks goes to @HertsEnglish and @HfLSecondaryEng for their fantastic training and support.
We tested our KS3 students with the YARC single word reader test - quick and simple and only needed 5 mins out of lesson - then YARC tested any with below age reading. Planned 4 strands for intervention to ensure sessions were tailored to needs…
…phonics, fluency, comprehension and EAL. We were lucky enough to have an experienced phonics teacher! Phonics and fluency ran twice a week for half an hour - shorter more frequent sessions worked better. Comprehension and EAL were an hour a week or fortnight dependant on need.
Our phonics and fluency specialists were TAs that we trained - again, thanks to @HfLSecondaryEng and @HertsEnglish! Our comprehension and EAL specialists were teachers. We adapted the fluency/echo reading sessions to suit secondary students and bought resources for older learners
We were completely unprepared at the emotional impact the sessions had on students - many had mastered ways of coping with their lack of reading skill. Students began to treat early session like therapy. We found this was a necessary part of their journey to reading confidence.
We tested in February and then again in July. The results were pretty incredible - some students gaining a net progress of 2+ years in 9 months, a few even more. 🙌
Did they all do well? No. A small number didn’t make progress or very little. We suspected an undiagnosed learning need and referred them to our Sendco for further support.
Did we see progress in their ability to access the curriculum across school? Yes. A teacher survey was sent out in July with the results showing that intervention students has made the biggest progress in various subjects. Teachers commented on improved engagement and assessments
Key learnings: the resources are really important. Happy to share what we used. Teachers/TAs need to learn how the YARC test works and interpret the data, E.g the speed often goes down but the accuracy goes up before the comprehension improves.
Happy to share how we adapted echo reading/fluency for a secondary school setting. Thanks to @FunkyPedagogy @DavidDidau @AlexJQuigley for all the reading and ideas!
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