In 2016, our attainment and progress in reading was not as it has been historically. It is not realistic to compare previous years' data as pupils were assessed in a new way, and against a new curriculum, and the tests were far harder.

However, in order to support our pupils appropriately, we addressed the issue in school and made many developments including:

Restructuring the library into a proper lending library with children acting as librarians

Investing in a wide variety of reading material for the library

All classes basing learning on a class text for some weeks each term, for example Class 3 have so far studied 'Wonder', 'Street Child' and 'Varjak Paw'.

All adults in school hearing children read every day

All children in school reading to adults

Planning is in place for a parent workshop in reading

Reading question cards for developing understanding in texts

A reading challenge in KS2

Staff sharing favourite books with children

Developing an outside reading area

Ensuring that children are discussing their understanding of the text and not simply reading words

Taking part in a whole school Readathon (proceeds to go to support a charity which enables reading with children in hospital)

Appointing a Reading Champion to encourage reading with younger pupils

Older pupils writing books for younger children

Individual pupils identified for daily reading at school to boost their reading practice

Morley Readathon

Our Readathon total reached an amazing £591.58, of which £118.31 (20%) was used to add new books to our library. The remaining 80% went to the hospital charity to support visitors reading books to children who are undergoing longer term treatment away from home.

The Readathon was a huge success with pupils throughout school reading a fantastic number of books over the 4 weeks. Staff reported that children were reading more widely and deeply, were able to discuss reasons for their choices, and were trying other books by new authors. Favourite books included:

The Claude series (mentioned by many children)

Captain Underpants

The Spy Dog books (author Andy Cope is from Derby)

Tracey Beaker

Room on the Broom

Diary of a Wimpy Kid

The Midnight Gang

The Kitten Nobody Wanted

The Gruffalo

Gangster Granny

Mallory Towers

Dr Seuss

Harry Potter

Jacqueline Wilson books

Letter to Pluto

A Heroes' Guide to Deadly Dragons

Black Beauty

Patrick Ness books

Boy in a Dress

The children said:

'I really like the Tom Gates books and Captain Underpants because they are funny and they make me laugh.'

'It feels really good to do this for charity.'

'Claude goes on some really good adventures.'

'Doing the Readathon has improved my reading. I'm reading more difficult words.'

'I'm making a book at home.'

'Spy Dog is a bit like the Gunpowder Plot.'

'I read all the book now - I don't miss out the bits I don't like!'

'Claude books make me feel like I'm in the book.'

'Normally I read 5 pages in a book, but now I read 10 or more.'

'I raised as much money as I could because I feel sorry for children who are poorly. I would definitely recommend these books.'

'I give this book 3 stars.'

'I like the theme of Diary of a Wimpy Kid because I like how it's a diary.'

'I liked The Ship of Adventure' because it is funny! The reason it is funny is because of a parrot called Kiki. Kiki says 'Polly put the kettle on, send for the kettle, pop goes Bill.'

'I liked Letter to Pluto because I learned some new things.'

'My favourite book in the Readathon was AniMaloom because it's not one of the boring ones: it's really funny. It gives you an amazing imagination.'

'It helped me with my word pronunciation, and I've learned some words that I didn't know and now I know what they mean.'

'My favourite book was Dork Diaries Frenemies Forever, and I like it because it has lots of drama in it.'

'I love Black Beauty. It's so kind. Readathon has made me read so much more.'

'The Readathon has encouraged me to read more and more.'

'I loved The Rest of us Just Live Here - it really made me think more deeply.'

'I got to read more books with a real excuse to do so!'

'This book is funny, imaginative, and unexpectedly odd.'

Attainment in reading 2017

In July 2017 our pupils proved that the work had been successful.

In EYFS 82% of pupils achieved a Good Level of Development, compared to 71% across Derbyshire and 70% nationally.

In the Y1 phonics check 84.6% achieved the expected level. 79.2% across Derbyshire, and 81% nationally. By the end of Y2 100% of pupils reach this target, whilst 77% do so in Derbyshire and 91% nationally.

In Y2 92% of pupils reached the expected standard, and 23% achieved the higher standard.

In Y6 100% achieved the expected standard (70.6% in Derbyshire and 71% nationally), and 82% achieved the higher standard (24.2% Derbyshire and 25% nationally). Our average scaled score for reading was 115 (104 nationally) and progress was 9.4 (national is 0).

We were absolutely delighted that the children had done so well, and that everyone's hard work had achived such a wonderful result.

ASPIRE

In September 2017, we began work on our ASPIRE programme. This has been developed by our staff from the ERIC work to support pupils in accessing and analysing texts in more detail.  The Morley ASPIRE programme enables pupils to respond to key aspects of reading comprehension in order to gain a deeper understanding of the text so that they are reading at greater depth.

Our ASPIRE logos have been created just for our school (thank you, Mrs Foster) and link our school owl to the ASPIRE criteria.

These are: