Reading at Crown Hills
At Crown Hills Community College, we believe that the ability to read fluently is fundamental to our students’ success. The purpose of improving literacy and guaranteeing that students can adequately read and write is not solely to ensure success in examinations, although this aspect is vitally important. It is to ensure that students are capable of richer lives, and able to enter fully into society. Children who read for pleasure make more progress in maths, as well as vocabulary and spelling, between the ages of 10 and 16 than those who rarely read (Institute of Education, University of London, 2013). Likewise, there is evidence that reading books is the only out-of-school activity for 16-year-olds demonstrably linked to securing managerial or professional jobs (Mori, 2013). We want to ensure that all of our students are able to read at their chronological age level or higher – not just to ensure their successful academic performance, but because we believe that reading will vastly improve our students’ life chances after they leave Crown Hills.
Transition
For students who struggle with literacy, transition can be challenging. At Crown Hills we aim to ensure that these students are quickly identified and receive targeted intervention from Year 7 to ensure that they are able to access and progress through the curriculum.
- Transition booklet provided to all prospective CHCC students
- Key students identified at feeder primary schools
- All new students take baseline Star Reading test to identify baseline reading age
- EAL and SEND deaprtments complete reading tests with lowest 20% of students after intial screening test
- Summer School reading activities
Interventions
At Crown Hills, we have a significant number of students who arrive in Year 7 and as new arrivals to the UK without the decoding or comprehension knowledge they require to flourish and access the full curriculum. Therefore, it is integral that we provide an effective transition and targeted intervention programme for these students to increase their fluency. After identifying these students, 3-levels of ‘Daily Literacy’ classes run every day following the Read, Write, Inc and other language support/ phonics programmes. Some students follow the Rapid Reader Plus programme through small group and 1-1 tuition.
Daily Literacy Programme
- For weakest readers
- Following Read, Write, Inc
- 3 different levels of intervention based on Reading Age Single Word Reading tests
Rapid Reader Plus
- Small group 1/1 intervention
- Rapid Reader Plus
Form Reading Programme
- Weekly tutor reading programme
- Whole-class readers
- Comprehension and Vocabulary
English Reading Homework
- Accelerated Reader for all students in Year 7 and 8
- Read 2 books every half term, take 2 quizzes
- Word Millionaire Competition
Reading Culture
By valuing and encouraging a strong reading culture at Crown Hills, we aim to encourage all students to be active, regular readers outside of school. There are numerous benefits for our students to be regular readers, including increased academic achievement, better social skills and happiness. Our form reading programme, Accelerated Reader programme and library strategy all aim to build on our students’ love of reading. We build this love of reading through:
- Book Groups
- Public Speaking
- Creative Writing
- Trips
- Competitions
- Book/Author Talks
- Targeted Inteventions
Curriculum
High quality teaching across the curriculum will reduce the need for extra literacy support. Therefore, at Crown Hills we ensure that literacy strategies are part of the curriculum across all disciplines and part of our Teaching and Learning Temple.
Accelerated Reader
Reading Booklet
