The Total Literacy Solution: Raising reading attainment and shaping readers beyond the classroom

Forming; managing and maintaining a Total Literacy Solution is a challenge for senior leaders nationally in education. Ensuring that the books used to teach both the technical and comprehension skills of reading; tests used to assess how these skills have been mastered and interventions used to ensure that gaps are taught and mastered is a fine art. Rigour; consistency and accuracy must sit at the heart of any literacy solution alongside a robust monitoring cycle so that opportunities are maximised for all pupils and students. Teacher workload is also a priority supported by high-quality CPD opportunities for all staff – resulting in systems working seamlessly for all (including those who often need guidance from the ECT; a teacher who has moved year groups and teachers who have had an absence from education).

Having a Total Literacy Solution that really works ensures that pupils and students will:

• develop the reading skills required to be a real reader – cracking the phonemic code; identifying vocabulary and understanding what it means in different contexts; predicting what might happen based on what has been stated and implied; sequencing the main events and summarising what happens; retrieving about characters and plot; navigating through a non-fiction text and identifying how non-narrative is organised on a page and making inferences from the text
• apply the above skills when reading unseen texts and be equipped to answer comprehension questions in a test situation (improving reading attainment)
• apply the above skills – combination of cracking the phonemic code and reading for meaning – to ensure they read with fluency
• read for pleasure once fluency is mastered – actually be a reader beyond the classroom

Having a Total Literacy Solution that really works ensures that teachers and school leaders can:

• teach reading through high-quality real books
• equip pupils with the main reading skills to become real readers who apply these skills in test situations
• make accurate and reliable teacher assessment judgements for reading based on day-to-day reading opportunities and more formal reading tests
• be confident there is a consistent whole-school approach to both the teaching and assessment of reading skills
• identify appropriate reading interventions for pupils/students who may have gaps in their acquisition of reading skills
• create reports that: support teacher assessment judgements; compare groups of learners; track progress for pupils within an intervention for other staff and school stakeholders.

Having a Total Literacy Solution that really works is possible if you invest in a series of products that work seamlessly.

1. Rocket Phonics – A DfE validated systematic synthetic phonics programme made up of Lift Off (wordless and first word books); Comet Street Kids (action-packed character stories) and Galaxy (curriculum linked fiction and non-fiction) for age 4-6. Now with Rocket Phonics Next Steps for ages 6-7 and First Steps for age 3-4.
2. Reading Planet – ‘The only scheme that reflects today’s young readers’… Reading Planet is a whole-school reading programme for pupils aged 3-11 consisting of books that are also available as eBooks. Motivating and engaging home reading books written by real authors which has had a huge impact on increased reading for pleasure figures for children. Built-in quizzes ensure that the main National Curriculum reading skills are ‘assessed’ and embedded throughout the reading scheme.
3. NTS Assessments for Reading – standardised termly reading tests for learners aged 5-11 that are formatted to reflect SATs papers in content, format and demand. These tests are standardised nationally so that automatic standardised scores are generated for pupils (you can compare to national averages). Reading ages are generated too to provide reference points for parents and other external agencies. Through Boost Insights, gaps in learning are analysed so that progress can be tracked for all pupils. Or PiRA – termly reading assessments that are standardised on more than 10,000 learners. Schools can benchmark learners and track progress against national averages. New PiRA are colourful and diverse tests that are carefully written to ensure a steady progression in demand. The additional Hodder Scaled Score ensures that progress can be tracked for pupils who are working outside their age range but continue to make small increments of progress.
4. Shine Interventions – accessed via Boost Insights where detailed intervention reports instantly identify knowledge gaps including high-quality teaching notes that follow a ‘Prepare; Review; Do’ approach to teaching (including an online modelling response software). This reading intervention is completely self-explanatory and includes walk-through videos for staff (teachers and support staff) therefore reducing the workload and focussing on the priority of raising standards in reading. Shine Interventions effectively plug knowledge gaps identified from your chosen standardised assessment (NTS or PiRA)

So, you can really have a Total Literacy Solution after all…

Learn more about The Total Literacy Solution here.

Maddy Barnes is an experienced primary school teacher and senior leader who is currently a full-time English Advisor. She offers bespoke training to support schools locally, nationally and internationally. Maddy still regularly teaches in the classroom and includes live-teaching sessions in most of her training. Maddy is an established educational author, writer, blogger and series editor for a range of educational publishers. She is a DfE QA proofer for grammar and reading and works within test development. Maddy is a KS2 Writing Moderator and blogs regularly for a range of educational settings.