So, upon return to school in September 2020, I was given the responsibility of line managing the inclusion support assistants (bar a few who work with students who have an EHCP) as their normal work with students within lessons had been made more difficult with covid restrictions.

What a gift! I quickly got my newly appointed ‘Literacy Team’ up and running. Staff were trained in reciprocal reading strategies, reading fluency programmes, echo reading, phonics support, YARC testing and ‘data immersion’ meetings took place over a cup of tea and homemade cake (sugar took the edge off the mounting data!).

I have to admit being extremely lucky and having an amazing inclusion support assistant who had once been a primary teacher and familiar with the phonics programme. I know, another gift!

Phase One: Testing and data analysis

With the absence of SATs, we invested in The Progress Tests in English (GL Assessment) and extended this to the whole of KS3. My literacy team used this data to target students in KS3 who needed reading support, and within two weeks they had YARC tested all the targeted students. It was much less painful than I thought. I alerted teaching staff to the strategy and they were told that students may be taken out of lessons for testing for 15 mins at a time. No timetable for testing, students were taken out and tested quickly and efficiently outside the classroom so that they could get back into their lessons without too much disruption. I will say that a bit of time is needed to train up the staff on the YARC tests and a couple of trial runs were needed, but once they were confident, it was plain sailing.

After examining all the data (and there’s lots of it), timetables were put together. I had done quite a bit of work during INSET days and T&L briefings to share the importance of improving literacy following the school closures, and staff at my school were incredibly supportive of the strategy.

Phase two: implementation

The data had exposed some shocking results and we were able to identify year 7 students who needed to learn to read (they had become very good at hiding their own reading challenges). We also had small groups for reading fluency intervention tailored to the students’ individual needs, e.g. reciprocal reading, echo reading, comprehension etc.

The literacy team were unprepared for the reaction from some year 7 students who shared their ‘secrets’ on how they survived lessons without being able to read confidently. Many other KS3 students confessed to how worried they were about their reading and they shared their relief that they were getting tailored support. I could see my team loving the work they were doing and seeing the impact each week kept them motivated. It was exciting times.

Then, schools closed again in January!

We had got so far that we knew we had to try and continue online. Chromebooks were handed out to staff and students, new timetables created, books and reading booklets sent home and within one week we were reading over zoom. 70% of our students on the programmes continued to attend. I kept my team’s expectations realistic; it’s never going to make the same impact as face-to-face, but it might stop students going back to where they were in September.

The impact: how do we measure it with the school closure?

The week we returned in February, the team got to work YARC testing all the students on the programmes again. I should mention at this point that the YARC test is not onerous on the students and it’s not scary at all. Most of them seem unaware that they are being tested; they read some words and an extract.

We compared the data with the data from October, but also we compared students who attended the remote intervention with those who didn’t to get some useful results.

The students who were on the phonics programme made the most progress. Those who hadn’t attended remote intervention either stayed the same or regressed slightly. These sessions are one-to-one and run twice a week.

Students on the reading fluency and comprehension programmes showed a real mixed bag in terms of data; one common thread was that students who attended regularly remotely continued to make progress compared to those who didn’t.

Making sense of the data narrative: what does progress look like?

The YARC data gave us some clear indicators of how improving reading works. We noticed that there was a process to progress: speed slows down to accommodate better accuracy, followed by improved comprehension and finally speed increases as confidence and understanding increases. Taking note of which indicators had gone up or down, we were able to plot students’ individual reading progress journey.

Of course, our reading strategy continues and this time, we hope, no more interruptions. At present, it’s unclear whether the literacy team can continue in the same way next year, but early indications have shown that it has made an impact on the reading ages and confidence of many of our KS3 students. The next stage is for subject teachers to track the progress of these students in their subject – the impact needs to translate to all classrooms.