Impacting KS2 SATs results and improving vocabulary to create secondary-ready pupils – see how Reading Plus has helped Newcastle primary
Initially implemented in Years 5 and 6 at St Bede's Catholic Primary School by its former Deputy Head, Intervention Lead and HLTA Claire Davies has since taken the reins with the adaptive online reading development programme DreamBox Reading Plus.
With reading for pleasure and reading in general on the decline at St Bede’s, Claire’s influence and championing of the programme has helped the pupils make amazing progress in their independent reading, KS2 SATs results and vocabulary builidng – so much so that the school has expanded the reach of Reading Plus to include Years 3 and 4.
“Without a shadow of a doubt, take Reading Plus on board - however much you may think you don't have it in your budget. The achievement, success and progress that the children make because of the programme far outweighs any deficit that you would be in.”
Read below to hear from Claire the positive impact of Reading Plus at St Bede’s.
Reading progress with Reading Plus
I work at grassroots level and I can see that Reading Plus makes a huge difference. In Year 6 especially, we've got children who've gone from not achieving EXS on SATs assessments to GD in the space of six months.
Miss Scott, Year 6 teacher, said: “Reading Plus has had a significant impact on the amount of progress our children have made in the last six months – on average, 2.3 year-level gains in text complexity.”
Miss McNally, Year 5 teacher, said: “Reading Plus has helped the children with reading fluency, the majority of the children in the class have moved up book bands, and it's helping them to become more independent with reading comprehension without constantly needing adult support.”
Preparing for SATs
We've seen huge leaps and bounds in our data and practice SATs papers. Reading Plus is making a huge difference. When I mark the practice papers, I can see how the programme has affected how they answer. They are more confident answering questions that are text based, and more independent. The level of achievement and progress is unbelievable.
Building reading for pleasure
Going forward in time, we are massively going to struggle, not just in school but also more broadly, with people no longer reading for pleasure and no longer seeing that reading is important.
We've got children who spend hours and hours on games consoles and don't have a book in the house, so it's important we give them something they can access that is going to enrich their reading and vocabulary - because otherwise they're not going to get it anywhere else.
Reading Plus is a brilliant tool, and something that's technology focused helps hook this generation of children.
The majority of our pupils love the programme and really engage with it. In class, it naturally became a competition for who could read the most words and other friendly challenges. I'd come into school after a weekend and the amount of words read would have risen by 20,000.
“Every single primary school and every single Key Stage 2 should have Reading Plus.”
Helping access the wider curriculum by building vocabulary
Reading Plus supports children across the curriculum because of the access granted by a growing vocabulary.
The programme also really helps us to get them secondary school ready.
Miss Scott, our Year 6 teacher, said: “As a result of Reading Plus, our children are now more proficient readers, which has allowed them to access our curriculum more effectively.”
Supporting teaching with comprehensive data
My favourite thing about the programme is that it's trackable. This data is very easy to manage, and it's simple to see where the children are doing well and where they're struggling.
The fact that very early on we can see where the weaker children are is especially useful. For interventions, we can see exactly where the the gaps are.
Miss Scott, our Year 6 teacher, said: “Being able to track their progress easily allows us to identify gaps, and the ready-made resources provided by Reading Plus are easy to use to support individuals and or groups.”
Free support for a successful implementation
The free customer support provided by Reading Plus is amazing.
We had training from the very beginning when I took it on board because I wanted everyone who was involved to be able to see how it works and how to use it.
If we have any queries, our emails are usually answered within half an hour. The team are on it.
How St Bede’s use Reading Plus
In Year 6, we use it for three 30 minute sessions a week within the Reading component of the programme. Pupils are also expected to do 30 minutes within the Vocabulary component at home. This ensures they get a balance.
In Year 5, pupils do 30 minutes twice a week, with the choice of what they do at home.
Reading Plus has overtaken guided reading for us because we know it hits everything it needs to.
I like the Real-time Activity Dashboard, which allows me to track live on my screen while the pupils are on Reading Plus and see what they are doing. I particularly like being notified when pupils achieve over 80% in their comprehension questions because I can celebrate with them there and then.
Or, if they are struggling and I can see they aren’t utilising support features like ReReads which allows pupils to revisit a section of the text, I can encourage them to use it.
Celebrating success is a huge thing in our school. We use the certificates generated in Reading Plus and award pupils in our celebration assembly.
Explore how Reading Plus can meet the needs of your school!
Book a brief meeting online with one of our Reading Development Consultants to explore the advantages of Reading Plus for your school.
Call:
0191 389 6078 (option 1)
