The reading gap

Approximately one in four pupils are moving to secondary school without having met the expected standard in the key stage 2 national reading test.

This holds many of them back in secondary school, both in their English lessons and more widely across the curriculum.

Many pupils are not reaching the expected standard in reading due to a lack of vocabulary. So how can we develop pupils’ vocabulary?

Well, perhaps they can be drilled with more SATs practice papers, but the issue here is that while pupils need some test practice, what they really need is exposure and encounters with a rich range of material across the curriculum that will both provide background knowledge and develop their vocabulary.

The question is what can be done to help pupils develop their reading and consequent knowledge of the world? As it happens, there is some promising research which can help us to help our pupils with reading, comprehension and vocabulary development.

A research trial from the University of Sussex, ‘Just Read’, found that over a 12 week period, Year 8 pupils’ reading ages improved overall by 8.5 months. For those pupils who had been identified as being ‘poorer’ readers, their reading ages improved by 16 months. Wherever we are in the sector, I think we have to take these findings seriously.

While any research has its flaws and the Sussex research was with about 400 pupils, other schools, both secondary and primary have found similar results. We can see what happened when the Nene Park Academy tried a similar fast read in their school and similarly in the Gloucester Road Nursery and Primary school.

I don’t think we can ignore these findings!