Interventions
"Reading makes me feel excited because I don't know what is going to happen next in the story."
Reading Recovery
Reading Recovery is a reading intervention programme designed for children who are struggling to make progress in reading after their first year of school. It is a series of intensive lessons with a specially trained reading teacher.
Children in Reading Recovery have individual lessons for 30 minutes every day. The lesson series lasts for up to 20 weeks. The programme is different for every child, starting from what the child knows and what he/she needs to learn next. The focus of each lesson is to understand messages in reading and construct messages in writing.
The lesson series finishes when the child is able to read and write without help, at an appropriate level for their age.
At St Augustine’s we have a specially trained Reading Recovery teacher.
What a Reading Recovery lesson involves
"My Reading Recovery teacher taught me that reading is fun and not difficult, I love reading lots of different books, my favourite are funny books".
In your child's daily lesson he/she will:
read a few specially chosen books
learn how to use letters and words
write a short story
make a puzzle from their story to bring home
choose a book to bring home
Parents are always invited into school to watch a lesson and chat to the Reading Recovery teacher about their child’s needs and experiences.
We have recently been recognised for our commitment to Reading recovery and been awarded with the prestigious 'School of the Year’ award, organised by the International Literacy Centre at the Institute of Education in London.
Our achievements in delivering the programme were recognised at an awards ceremony in London on 7 July 2017, where we were recognised as a school who have made an outstanding contribution to children's literacy through Reading Recovery.
Phonics
At St Augustine's we use the Little Wandle Letter and Sounds revised approach.
Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised was born out of a collaboration between Little Sutton Primary School and Chesterton Primary School (part of Wandle Learning Trust) which started during the Covid lockdown.
Find out more in this short video below, which marks their journey to their first 3,000 member schools and showcases their partnership with Collins Primary to provide fully matched resources and Big Cat for Little Wandle books.
Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised has been built around the update (Letters and Sounds improving rates of progress 2021) and draws on the excellent practice of both Little Sutton Primary and Chesterton Primary, as well as our work with schools around the country.
How you can help with your child's reading
Show an interest in your child's reading, and encourage him/her to read the books he/she brings home each day. Spending a few minutes each day reading with your child will make a big difference! This should be a shared, happy time together. It is not a test, and it shouldn't feel like hard work for your child. If they get stuck on a word say 'try to work it out', silently count to three and if they haven't got the word by then, just tell them and keep the story reading going smoothly.
Aim to spend 10 minutes a day, but if this is too long for your child, try five minutes. Don't make it a chore.
Please make sure your child is in school every day, so that he/she does not miss any Reading Recovery lessons. Children progress faster if they attend school every day because they are able to practise the skills they have learnt and build their confidence from lesson to lesson.
Switch-On
Switch-On Switch-on Reading is an intensive 10-week literacy intervention. It is delivered on a one to one basis by staff, most commonly teaching assistants, who have been trained in the approach. The purpose of Switch-on is to achieve functional literacy for as many pupils as possible, and so to close the reading achievement gap for vulnerable children working below age-expected levels. It is inspired by the well-established intervention Reading Recovery, which is teacher led and delivered over a 12 – 20 week period.
Aims
The Switch-On intervention aims to support students to participate more fully in the classroom by becoming more confident, active and independent readers and writers, who can use a range of effective reading strategies in order to achieve their full literacy potential.
The programme in outline
- Some of our TAs are trained to deliver Switch-On.
- They work one-to-one with identified children
- Each session lasts for 20-30 minutes daily for 10 weeks
- Switch-On follows a 2-day rolling programme (reading one day, writing the next)
Structure of the Switch-On programme
Each child's programme is based on their initial assessment.
Day 1 Reading Day
- Read two familiar books or parts of books.
- Have a running record - on book introduced previous reading session.
- Introduction and first read of a new book.
Day 2 Writing Day
- Read a familiar book.
- Conversation which supports the oral composition of a message to be written.
- Write sentence using existing writing strategies and develop further strategies through co-construction, cutting up sentence and reconstructing the cut up message.
- Children then take home and envelope to read and reconstruct at home.