KSS Literacy and Reading Strategy

“Every teacher at KSS is a teacher of literacy”

Our aim is to develop confident and highly literate students who are capable of sharing their thoughts and learning, within and beyond Kidsgrove Secondary School.

Core Principles

The Importance of Reading

At Kidsgrove Secondary School, we recognise that the ability to read fluently and comprehend age-appropriate texts is fundamental to accessing the secondary school curriculum. Students who struggle with reading often face significant challenges across all subjects, which can lead to long-term academic and personal disadvantages. Research consistently highlights the direct correlation between strong literacy skills and future success. Therefore, we are committed to making reading a key priority, ensuring that no student falls behind in their educational journey.

In addition to its academic significance, we also recognise the value of reading for personal enjoyment and intellectual curiosity. Our goal is to provide all students with opportunities to engage with a wide range of texts, encouraging both their functional literacy and their love for books.

 

Below you can find the outline of our three tiers of reading support at KSS that drive our literacy and reading strategy:

Reading

Kidsgrove Secondary School accepts the fundamental principle that reading is the key to improving learning and raising standards; it enables pupils to gain access to the subjects studied in schools, to read for information and pleasure, and to communicate effectively in both written and spoken contexts. Consequently, all curriculum areas and all teachers have a crucial role to play in supporting students’ academic literacy development.

All staff are responsible for embedding reading support into their lessons. Teachers are expected to be aware of their students’ reading ages and to employ strategic approaches to support those who need additional help. Teachers are expected to use reading age data to complete the SEND snapshot bookmark to be able to plan accordingly for age related texts.

From September 2024, diagnostic reading data will be integrated into teaching practices to ensure targeted support for weaker readers in every subject. All staff will receive tailored CPD to enhance their ability to address reading barriers effectively, reinforcing our school-wide ethos that ‘Every teacher at KSS is a teacher of literacy’[MB1] 

Teaching Literacy

As part of our whole-school reading strategy, we embed a consistent approach to developing reading fluency and vocabulary across the curriculum. This includes:

  • Modelling Reading Fluency: Teachers regularly model fluent reading during lessons to demonstrate appropriate pace, expression, and phrasing. This helps students develop their own fluency and comprehension skills by hearing how skilled reading sounds. This is further reinforced at KS3 through explicit ‘Reading Fluency’ lessons in English, which happen once a fortnight.
  •  Vocabulary Instruction through Vocabulary Builders: Every lesson includes a Vocabulary Builder section, where key subject-specific vocabulary is explicitly introduced, discussed, and applied. This ensures students can access challenging texts and express themselves more effectively in both spoken and written work.
  • Word of the Week in Form Time: Each week, form tutors introduce a carefully selected ‘Word of the Week’ to all students. This initiative promotes curiosity around language, broadens students' vocabulary, and encourages them to use new words in different contexts throughout the week.
  • Teachers monitor progress and scaffold accordingly: Using literacy data identifies student challenges, allowing for targeted interventions within lessons, while scaffolding resources provide structured support to gradually develop reading and writing skills. Together, they break down literacy barriers by tailoring instruction and building student confidence in accessing complex texts.
  • Sparx Reader and Drop Everything and Read

Reading Intervention

Lexonic: Students identified with a reading age 18 months or more below their chronological age attend weekly targeted Lexonic reading sessions led by the Reading team. These small-group interventions, limited to a maximum of four students, are designed to build confidence and improve reading fluency, particularly in relation to the demands of GCSE English texts. Lexonik sessions are intensive; lasting for 6 weeks. They are fast-paced, engaging, and led by our trained TAs . On average, students make significant gains in their reading age, helping to remove barriers to learning across the curriculum and enabling better access to GCSE-level content.

Intensive Phonics

For students with a reading age more than three years below their chronological age, a structured phonics-based intervention is required.

Read, Write, Inc

Programme: Read, Write, Inc. Fresh Start (RWIFS). Targets fundamental decoding skills and phonics gaps. 

Delivery & Monitoring: Students access the programme through small-group or one-to-one sessions, delivered three times a week for 20 minutes. Parents are contacted to inform them of their child’s participation and the intended impact of the intervention. Staff are updated via the SEND bulletin on which students are involved and receive CPD to help them support these learners effectively within the classroom.

Word of the Week at Kidsgrove Secondary School

We are pleased to introduce you to ‘Word of the Week.’  This is a programme run by The Kidsgrove Secondary School where our students will be challenged to develop and extend their vocabulary through learning and using a specific word each week.

Word of the Week helps students to grow their vocabulary – that means learning new words so that they can speak, write, and understand things better. Each new word gives students more power to explain their ideas, ask better questions, and understand what others are saying or writing. It’s like collecting tools – the more words we all know, the more tools we have to use in school, in stories, and even in real-life conversations. Plus, it helps us get better at spelling, reading, and thinking deeply about things.

‘Word of the Week’ sees students being introduced to a selected word each week through form time.  Students will be expected to learn to read the word correctly, spell it and understand its meaning.  In developing their vocabulary further, they will also be taught words of similar meaning and given examples of word use.

Each week we will link parents to the ‘Word of the Week’ here on the Website along with our learning resources through twitter and the school website to enable parents to discuss with their child.

We hope that by linking teachers, students and parents in this way that we are better equipping our young people for life-long educational success.

Each week the most recent addition to ‘Word of the Week’ will appear at the top of the list shown below.  Please follow the link below to open the associated learning resources.