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Literacy including our Reading programme

All pupils at Rodillian Academy read a wide range of age-appropriate texts, and often. Our intention is to ensure that every student leaves school with a reading age in line or beyond with their chronological reading age whilst fostering a love for reading for pleasure.

Our Library

We are proud of our library at Rodillian Acadamy. Not only is it a safe, comfortable place to read, but it is also a well-stocked with suitable books for all readers. New stock is added every half term to ensure that the latest books are available for our students. Moreover, we have an ‘older reader’ library that offers a range of well selected age-appropriate texts for KS4 students, and a brand new Sixth Form library with a great selection of modern and classic literary texts.

We also have a ‘digital library’ for students to engage with outside of school. Click here to explore: Rodillian Academy - Digital Library

Accelerated Reader (KS3)

In addition to the four English lessons a week, Year 7 and 8 pupils participate in one dedicated reading lesson per week. In these lessons, students are given the opportunity to read thousands of up-to-date titles (and all the classics). The books are linked to the Accelerated Reader programme which quizzes children on the books they read, recommends titles which will stretch them and charts their progress as they read progressively more difficult books. Students are also given the opportunity to read, quiz, and change their books during form time.

  • 6th form students support these lessons and act as reading buddies, helping our less confident readers.
  • In each class, the student who makes the most progress against their personal target wins a prize, as well as the student who we nominate as the ‘Most Resilient Reader’.
  • Once a year, every student who reads over a million words is entered into a Word Millionaire Prize Draw. There are four Amazon vouchers up for grabs!
  • Each time a student gets 100% in the quiz, they win a sweet treat, and stamps are awarded to all students who pass quizzes.


Resilient Reading (Year 7)

All Year 7 students have one dedicated guided reading lesson every week. These lessons incorporate different reading approaches from teacher led (which models fluent expert reading), to choral reading which give pupils the chance to practice their reading skills.

Each half term focuses on a different unit and is designed to provide specific knowledge, cultural capital, and, above all, make reading fun and engaging for all learners. Over the year, students will explore carefully selected creation and origin stories whilst also exploring different cultures and literary periods. During these lessons, students will have the opportunity to infer, decode subject specific vocabulary, recognise multiple meanings for the same word/phrase, discuss character choices, and explore the writer’s intention(s) through a variety of comprehension tasks.
 
Class Novel (KS3)
Every student in KS3 will read a carefully selected class novel. This will allow teachers to assess pupils’ reading skills, fluency and encourage class discussions.

Here is a sample of our class readers:

Year 7

Year 8

Year 9


Guided Reading and Homework Year 9  

Every week, during two dedicated form periods, students have a guided reading lesson. Students read specifically selected extracts of fiction, non-fiction and poetry which are contemporary and diverse. The extracts form anthologies which help students to develop more confidence when tackling unseen prose. Moreover, the anthologies cover a range of themes which will excite, inspire and invigorate all who read them: race, identity, war, loss, LGBTQ+ to name but a few. 

These lessons are carefully scaffolded, and students will complete comprehension activities after reading to demonstrate their understanding of wider social, cultural and ethical contexts.

Year 9 students have a weekly ‘Cultural Capital’ homework task. These short reading extracts are read independently and followed by informational retrieval and comprehension activities.

Reading Intervention(s) and Support

If your child’s reading is not on track, we offer a range of reading interventions and support:

We use Lexonik Leap to effectively resolve phonics gaps for learners who find literacy particularly challenging and those for whom English is not their first language. This intervention encourages rapid progress in reading, spelling and oracy. Based on an initial diagnostic assessment, the programme can be adapted to allow for an individualised learning pathway, meaning the duration of the programme is dictated by the level of need.

Rapid Plus is delivered to small groups of SEN or struggling readers and is carefully leveled and structured to improve decoding and comprehension; moreover, the books are designed to give readers the reading success they need to aid motivation to read independently.