Reading Curriculum

Reading at Cardinal Hume

At Cardinal Hume, helping our students to enjoy reading and appreciate the benefits of being a proficient reader is a priority. We believe that it is not only the gateway to our
curriculum and key to academic success, but essential for the well-being and future prospects of all our students.

Our main aims are to:

• Establish a culture that fosters a love of reading amongst all students, regardless of age or ability.

• Ensure that students who are not reading at their chronological age become confident, proficient readers who can access the secondary curriculum.

To achieve aim 1:

1. School leaders prioritise reading and plan whole staff training on exploring reading strategies. Sessions are delivered by staff who have completed the National
Professional Qualification in Leading Literacy and are predominantly based on research from the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF). These sessions equip
staff with the skills to support students with decoding, fluency and comprehension in the classroom. To reinforce these messages, weekly strategies are shared with staff
via the bulletin and briefings.

2. Our library is the staffed by a full-time librarian who is a trained English teacher and phonics specialist. It is the hub of our school and is a well-resourced area which is
incredibly popular with students of all ages and reading abilities. Our library also hosts regular book clubs to encourage reading for pleasure which are open to all
students and staff and are very well attended. To complement our physical library space, we have an online catalogue which offers a plethora of resources including
suggested reading lists and student-led book reviews.

3. Reading books and dictionaries are part of school equipment to allow students regular access to books matched to their reading age.

4. Students in Year 7 and Year 8 have library sessions built into their English curriculum time to allow them to engage with the Accelerated Reader programme, change
books and have the opportunity to read for enjoyment.

5. Staff have access to reading age data via class profiles and have access to strategies to support those who need it and challenge those who are proficient readers.

6. During lunch time, all students in Year 7 attend a lunchtime reading session once a week. This is an opportunity to read diverse, age-appropriate texts as a group with a
member of staff. Staff model reading and students are given the opportunity to read aloud. Discussions are had based on the text to engage students.

7. All students, including sixth form are encouraged to spend time in tutor reading ageappropriate texts and engaging in discussion with their form tutor.

8. Staff are encouraged to display a ‘I am currently reading….’ Poster outside of their classroom to engage students in discussions about texts.

9. A reading section is included weekly on our parent bulletin with recommended books and current themes that our students can explore through reading.

10. A system of competitions and rewards are in place to provide recognition for both individual reading achievements and class success.

11. Events such as National Poetry Day and World Book Day are scheduled into the school calendar to ensure widespread engagement with tutor time activities, events
in our library and competitions.

12. All students in our Year 6 feeder schools receive a copy of the same transition book to read over the summer holidays with activities related to the book planned for
when they join us in Year 7.

To achieve aim 2:

School leaders invest in the training of specialist staff to ensure that students who are not reading at their chronological age are a priority and get support that is appropriate for their
needs. Students who are receiving intervention from the menu outlined below are closely monitored to ensure that when adequate progress has been made, students are moved on.
Alongside this structured reading intervention program, data is shared with class teachers via class profiles to ensure that staff are aware of the students who need the most support
and have strategies available to support them in all lessons.

1. At KS3, a holistic testing system including reading age tests through Accelerated Reader, SATs and CATs allows us to identify those students who are reading
significantly below their chronological age and are therefore at significant risk of falling behind their peers across the curriculum. This group of students are placed on
a reading watchlist to record their intervention and progress. With this cohort of students, specialised staff then perform diagnostic testing to establish if the support
they require is phonics, fluency or comprehension.

2. For those requiring phonics intervention, students work intensively for at least two hours per week with trained phonics staff using the Sounds Write programme. They
have access to age-appropriate texts to ensure they are engaged with their reading and are continually assessed and moved onto the less intensive fluency/comprehension intervention at the earliest appropriate point.

3. For the students who are struggling to read fluently, staff trained using the ‘Hearts for Learning’ program, focus on teaching students how to read fluently, focusing on
prosody and phonics.

4. When comprehension support is required, students work in small groups to read aloud, take part in discussions, address misconceptions, complete comprehension
tasks and improve regularity of reading.

5. Alongside the structured intervention programme, additional support is available for our lower ability readers. Our sixth form literacy leaders read with younger students
and support them with Accelerated Reader quizzes and short literacy tasks.

6. Students who struggle with reading in Year 8 and Year 9 also have access to Reading Plus during a dedicated reading lesson once a week.

7. Students who have not made adequate progress with their reading in Key Stage 3 are assessed at the start of Year 10 using the New Group Reading Test (NGRT)
assessment. This allows us to identify any students whose reading age may result in GCSE content being difficult to access.

8. When necessary, an additional tutor group is formed to allow these students to receive specialist reading support every morning that has a particular focus on
accessing the KS4 curriculum.