Literacy including our Reading programme
All pupils at Rodillian Academy read a wide range of age-appropriate texts, and often. Our intention is to ensure that every student leaves school with a reading age in line or beyond with their chronological reading age whilst fostering a love for reading for pleasure.
Our Library
We are proud of our library at Rodillian Acadamy. Not only is it a safe, comfortable place to read, but it is also a well-stocked with suitable books for all readers. New stock is added every half term to ensure that the latest books are available for our students. Moreover, we have an ‘older reader’ library that offers a range of well selected age-appropriate texts for KS4 students, and a brand new Sixth Form library with a great selection of modern and classic literary texts.
We also have a ‘digital library’ for students to engage with outside of school. Click here to explore: Rodillian Academy - Digital Library
Accelerated Reader (KS3)
In addition to the four English lessons a week, Year 7 and 8 pupils participate in one dedicated reading lesson per week. In these lessons, students are given the opportunity to read thousands of up-to-date titles (and all the classics). The books are linked to the Accelerated Reader programme which quizzes children on the books they read, recommends titles which will stretch them and charts their progress as they read progressively more difficult books. Students are also given the opportunity to read, quiz, and change their books during form time.
- 6th form students support these lessons and act as reading buddies, helping our less confident readers.
- In each class, the student who makes the most progress against their personal target wins a prize, as well as the student who we nominate as the ‘Most Resilient Reader’.
- Once a year, every student who reads over a million words is entered into a Word Millionaire Prize Draw. There are four Amazon vouchers up for grabs!
- Each time a student gets 100% in the quiz, they win a sweet treat, and stamps are awarded to all students who pass quizzes.
Resilient Reading (Year 7)
All Year 7 students have one dedicated guided reading lesson every week. These lessons incorporate different reading approaches from teacher led (which models fluent expert reading), to choral reading which give pupils the chance to practice their reading skills.
Each half term focuses on a different unit and is designed to provide specific knowledge, cultural capital, and, above all, make reading fun and engaging for all learners. Over the year, students will explore carefully selected creation and origin stories whilst also exploring different cultures and literary periods. During these lessons, students will have the opportunity to infer, decode subject specific vocabulary, recognise multiple meanings for the same word/phrase, discuss character choices, and explore the writer’s intention(s) through a variety of comprehension tasks.
Class Novel (KS3)
Every student in KS3 will read a carefully selected class novel. This will allow teachers to assess pupils’ reading skills, fluency and encourage class discussions.
Here is a sample of our class readers:
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Year 7 |
Year 8 |
Year 9 |
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Guided Reading and Homework Year 9
Every week, during two dedicated form periods, students have a guided reading lesson. Students read specifically selected extracts of fiction, non-fiction and poetry which are contemporary and diverse. The extracts form anthologies which help students to develop more confidence when tackling unseen prose. Moreover, the anthologies cover a range of themes which will excite, inspire and invigorate all who read them: race, identity, war, loss, LGBTQ+ to name but a few.
These lessons are carefully scaffolded, and students will complete comprehension activities after reading to demonstrate their understanding of wider social, cultural and ethical contexts.
Year 9 students have a weekly ‘Cultural Capital’ homework task. These short reading extracts are read independently and followed by informational retrieval and comprehension activities.
Reading Intervention(s) and Support
If your child’s reading is not on track, we offer a range of reading interventions and support:
We use Lexonik Leap to effectively resolve phonics gaps for learners who find literacy particularly challenging and those for whom English is not their first language. This intervention encourages rapid progress in reading, spelling and oracy. Based on an initial diagnostic assessment, the programme can be adapted to allow for an individualised learning pathway, meaning the duration of the programme is dictated by the level of need.
Rapid Plus is delivered to small groups of SEN or struggling readers and is carefully leveled and structured to improve decoding and comprehension; moreover, the books are designed to give readers the reading success they need to aid motivation to read independently.
Our library is stocked with a full range of Barrington Stoke texts, which are dyslexia-friendly books: they have short chapters and shorter stories that are more manageable for those who get distracted or tire easily; they’re expertly edited to remove the barriers to reading, aid comprehension and accessibility; they have accessible layouts and spacing to stop the page from becoming overcrowded; they have an off-white or tinted, heavier paper to help reduce visual stress; and, they have content matched to the age of the reader, not their reading level.
Bookbuzz (Year 7)
Our Year 7 students all benefit from our Bookbuzz scheme run by BookTrust, which allows us to give students the opportunity to choose their own book to take home and keep, from a wide range of high-quality titles. All the titles are carefully selected to ensure quality, suitability and - above all - to encourage reading for pleasure.
For more information, follow the link below:
Bookbuzz school reading programme for Year 7 and Year 8 | BookTrust
Readathon
In the run up to World Book Day, our students take part in a whole school Readathon. This is a sponsored read for the charity ReadforGood who bring storytellers and books into hospitals in the UK. The students set themselves ambitious reading targets and work towards these, finding sponsors from their family and friends. Last year, we raised more than £1200 for the charity.
Book Fair
Twice a year, we run a Scholastic Book Fair, which allows all our students the opportunity to browse, and buy, a selection of new, age-appropriate books. Scholastic shares the proceeds of these fairs with us, so we can buy more books for our library for all students to enjoy!
Author Visits
We believe it is important for students to meet authors, and understand the importance of their work. Last year, award winning author Benjamin Dean visited Rodillian to work with Year 9 students, firstly sharing his journey from celebrity journalist to children's author, and then charting his journey into Young Adult writing. He then led writing skills workshops with two year 9 classes who had previously studied his books in school. Benjamin then spoke to our Sixth Form students about career paths and how to gain inspiration as a writer. Many students brought in Benjamin's books to be personally signed, which was lovely to see.
We’re planning our next established author’s visit for this year, so watch this space.
Book Clubs (KS3-5)
We have weekly extracurricular book clubs across all key stages with one specific focus: read for pleasure! Ask your English teacher for details.
How can parents help?
Adding reading to your daily routine really supports literacy and wellbeing – and can be very enjoyable too!
Here are a few other tips that you might try:
- Read together with your child, reading out loud in turns. Could your child read to a younger sibling?
- Try to keep the reading sessions fun and relaxed, perhaps by using different voices, or acting out scenes.
- Ask questions and discuss the storyline, characters, language, setting. Guess what is going to happen.
- Keep praising your child, especially when they find reading difficult.
How often should my child read?
The short answer is as often as you like. After all, ‘the more that you learn, the more places you'll go’.
All students in KS3 are expected to read 20 minutes every school day as part of their homework.
