Literacy Development

St Peter’s School recognises that securing rapid progress in students’ reading age is important. This allows students to access written resources and to complete written tasks using the correct detailed subject specific content. This is a significant requirement of our students the majority of whom enter St Peter’s School with reading ages far below their chronological age. But through the support we offer, our students make rapid improvements.

	Reading age
Year	On entry	Currently	Change
7	11.1	11.1	-
8	10.6	12.0	+1.4
9	12.0	12.8	+0.8
10	10.0	12.9	+2.9
11	10.1	13.1	+3.0

This rapid improvement is achieved by:

Working with primary schools to identify those who need the most intensive support
Reading intervention via experienced and trained staff on an individual/small group basis as appropriate using nationally recognised schemes
Peer reading with 6^th Form students
Reading during KS3 English lessons
Celebrating the importance of reading e.g. Rotary Club Literacy Cup
Literacy/extended writing is a focus in all subjects across all year groups
Reading during tutor time
Author visits
Book competitions
Reading in the library during tutor time

Peter Murray (children’s author) is our ‘Partner for Reading’, involving regular activities at St Peter’s School.

Lexonik

This programme requires significant staff training and time for it to be effective. The school has invested these considerable resources into developing the required staff.

The impact has been significant with identified year 11 students increasing their reading age by 11 months after 6 weeks of intervention.