Curriculum
Reading
Intent
We know that being a good reader improves outcomes across the curriculum opens doors in life and opens door in life. We want to ensure that students leave St Luke’s as fluent and critical readers, having read and enjoyed a wide range of both fiction and non-fiction texts so they can live life to the full. Our reading curriculum is evidence-based and inspiration has been drawn from Alex Quigley: Closing the Reading Gap; Katherine Mortimore: Disciplinary Literacy and Explicit Vocabulary Teaching: A whole school approach to closing the attainment gap; Doug Lemov: Reading Reconsidered: A Practical Guide to Rigorous Literacy Instruction; FFT Literacy: Reciprocal Reading Strategies and the EEF’s guide to Improving Literacy in Secondary Schools.
Our reading curriculum enables our students to live life to the full because:
We understand it is essential that St Luke’s Scholars are all able to read with fluency and comprehension in order to ensure they feel included as part of society and are able to achieve their best.
We understand that St Luke’s Scholars should enjoy reading a wide range of texts, whether that is fiction or non-fiction and from a variety of subject disciplines in order to live life to the full and have respect for other.
We understand that St Luke’s Scholars need to be able to read complex academic texts with active engagement, developing and using effective strategies such as activating prior knowledge, making predictions, summarising and questioning in order to achieve their best and be included.
We understand that a rigorous and whole school approach to developing excellent reading habits will enable students to experience success and gain confidence.
We provide targeted and coordinated support for St Luke’s Scholars with the weakest literacy skills, both in class and in partnership with the SEND team based on regular assessment to assess impact. Through the library we provide reading materials for all students regardless of background and reading ability. Sparx Reader for year 7 ensures that students are supported and encouraged to read conscientiously and regularly.
Implementation
Our intent is implemented in a number of ways, including:
- Tutorial Reading Programme which supplements and enriches the English Curriculum to provide a rich and diverse offering of seminal texts, exposing students to a wide range of literature and promoting the importance of reading for pleasure. In year 7-10, students will be read to by their tutor as part of their tutorial time. This is designed to expose children to texts they might not otherwise experience in a positive and warm environment. Reading is purposeful and students are expected to follow the text as their tutor reads. The tutor will provide short definitions of some more complex vocabulary and may occasionally ask students questions to check understanding.
- Reading Like a Scholar: Students are apprenticed in habits of excellent reader, aiming to embed consistent reading habits. They are explicitly taught reading strategies across the curriculum to support tracking and attention.
We aim to maintain positive attitudes to reading and understanding of what students read by: continuing to read and discuss an increasingly wide range of fiction, poetry, plays, non-fiction and reference books or textbooks with increasing complexity in terms of vocabulary and themes or conceptual ideas. We aim to provide access to reading books that are structured in different ways and reading for a range of purposes and ensure familiarity with a wide range of books, including myths, legends and traditional stories, modern fiction, fiction from our literary heritage, and books from other cultures and traditions
Reading at Key Stage 4 aims to ensure that all students are able to read fluently, independently and confidently to access academic texts and resources across the curriculum. Students’ reading ages should be such that they are able to access their GCSE exams and be prepared for their future lives.
Impact
Our reading curriculum develops students’ background knowledge of the world around them and supports the development of their vocabulary. Improving reading ages supports students’ achievements across the curriculum. The curriculum promotes reading as pleasurable activity, broadens horizons and exposes students to worlds and perspectives outside of their own. Reading great literature encourages us to explore the complexity of the human condition: our mortality, joy, sadness, loss and love.
St Luke’s is a wonderful place; is a school full of staff who are dedicated to improving the life chances of every student that attends the school.
Kealey Sherwood, Headteacher
At St Luke's, we are a Steplab Coaching Hub and use Steplab to power our professional development. To find out more about our approach to instructional coaching, check out this guide. To book a coaching hub visit to our school, email hello@steplab.co