Reading at St Aidan's 

‘He who loves reading has everything within his reach’ - William Godwin. 

At St Aidans Academy we instill a love of reading in our community and believe that reading opens endless doors for our pupils to live a ‘life in all its fullness’. Reading opens doors to different passions; different cultures and different ways to become courageous advocates in school and in the community.  

Reading habits are instilled in the tutorial sessions where pupils explore a wide range of challenging texts from a variation of contexts. Every pupil has the opportunity to explore a wide variety of books in our Learning Resource Centre. Pupils read frequently and purposefully to support learning and are taught how to read within the realms of the subject-specific discipline. We intervene quickly when pupils cannot read at the level and fluency appropriate for their age to ensure they can access the broad curriculum we offer. We continue to adapt and personalise this support for our students for as long as it is needed. 

What does the research say about reading?

  ‘Today a reader, tomorrow a leader’   - Margaret Fuller.

At St Aidans Academy our staff are proud teachers of explicit reading and vocabulary instruction. Disciplinary literacy recognises that different subjects read in different ways: pupils should be explicitly taught and supported to read like scientists, mathematicians, theologians etc. Good readers use a range of comprehension skills which involve the development of grammar, syntax, vocabulary, text structures and genres. Pupils also need to develop deep comprehension monitoring and inference skills. However, background knowledge also plays an important role. The Education Endowment Foundation’s Reading House offers a model to ensure that pupils read, write and communicate effectively in each subject. We use book clubs not only to promote fictional reading but also non-fiction to increase their background knowledge. Staff recognise that pupils need more background knowledge to be able to improve their inferences and take in more meaning from texts. For this reason, staff use the strategies of reciprocal and strategic reading to support and enhance pupil’s reading ability and produce confident readers. 

How reading and literacy are taught 

‘Literacy is the tool we use as humans to find one another, so it must belong to everyone’ –Pam Allyn. 

Staff are trained in research-informed strategies to ensure pupils develop strong inference skills and can read to learn. We recognise that the teaching of reading is a highly intentional process and use explicit and implicit vocabulary instruction to assist understanding.  In all curriculum areas students are explicitly taught vocabulary that is essential to their understanding of the topic and the strengthening of their schema. We provide students with models to recall and apply new vocabulary, always ensuring that they can know more, remember more and do more. By exposing pupils strategically to a range of texts, we seek to increase their absorption rate of new words, preparing them for their next step in education as well as having the skills to live a life in all its fullness. Each subject discipline takes ownership of reading instruction. Pupils are taught and led to read like a linguist, theologian, historian etc. Staff recognise the similarities between teaching reading and the differences when inspiring students to become scholars of each subject discipline.  

Quotes from children 

‘Literacy is a right, not a privilege’. 

‘Reading opens up our imagination’ - Emilia I, Y11.  

‘Reading is important to support us in understanding more vocabulary across our subjects’. - Theodore Y10