Reading
At Mossbourne Fobbing Academy, reading is at the heart of our curriculum. We recognise that strong reading skills underpin academic success, and we are committed to ensuring that all pupils read fluently, with confidence, expression, and secure comprehension. At the same time, we strive to foster a lifelong love of reading for pleasure.
We believe that all pupils should have the tools to master key literacy skills, enabling them to explore, express, and communicate their ideas effectively. We develop these skills through a focus on oracy, active listening, reading, and writing.
Developing Effective Readers
Pupils with strong reading skills are able to:
- Employ a range of strategies to access and understand texts
- Adapt their reading style to suit different purposes
- Read fluently, accurately, and with comprehension
- Read independently and with confidence
- Critically engage with texts, making informed and appropriate choices
The Role of Teachers in Supporting Reading Development
To support and enhance pupils’ reading skills, teachers across the curriculum provide opportunities for pupils to:
- Engage with a variety of texts, both in print and digital formats
- Learn how to sift and select information relevant to their learning
- Explore personal interests through reading diverse texts of varying lengths
- Question and critically assess written information and viewpoints
- Use reading as a tool for research and investigation
Our Approach to Reading Across the Curriculum
Teachers at Mossbourne Fobbing Academy aim to:
- Embed reading development within their subject areas
- Present reading tasks at an accessible and challenging level
- Highlight key structural features of texts, including layout, format, and signposting
- Teach pupils how to skim, scan, or read intensively depending on the task
- Support pupils in selecting and noting relevant information
- Develop pupils' ability to question, challenge, and identify bias in texts
- Provide targeted support for those at the early stages of reading
- Teach subject-specific vocabulary to enhance understanding
By equipping our pupils with strong reading and literacy skills, we empower them to achieve their academic goals and succeed in their next steps of learning.
Whole school strategies
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Diagnostic testing |
All pupils in year 7,8,9 complete reading tests in term 1. These tests are then completed again in term 4 to allow progress to be measured. |
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Library lessons |
All pupils in KS3 have timetabled Library sessions. These are opportunities to read for pleasure, discuss authors and explore a range of fiction and non-fiction texts. |
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Disciplinary literacy |
All teachers are teachers of literacy, and therefore, literacy underpins all subjects. All subjects mark for literacy and support reading skills. |
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Differentiated Pathway |
Our Differentiated Pathway provides opportunities for specifically targeted pupils to secure, and embed, essential reading skills. |
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Reading for pleasure |
We believe that all pupils have a love for reading, and we provide different opportunities for pupils to find a way to love reading. At MFA, we have annual ‘Readathons’, celebrate World Book Day and have daily library clubs open to all pupils. |
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Developing reading skills outside of the classroom |
We provide pupils with the opportunity to take part in our Summer Reading challenge. Pupils who successfully complete the reading challenge are rewarded with prizes in September. |
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Tutor time |
One tutor session every week is dedicated to prefix / affix and morphology skills. With this, pupils learn a whole range of new vocabulary, as well as understanding of prefixes and suffixes to help decoding of new words. |
Reading Interventions
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Lexonik Advance |
A targeted reading intervention used to improve automaticity, fluency and decoding skills. This reading intervention supports all subjects across the curriculum. |
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Lexonik Leap |
Designed for our most struggling readers, this intervention helps secure basic reading skills including knowledge and understanding of phonemes and graphemes which is key to developing phonological awareness. |
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PIXL Fluency |
Supported by our LiTAC Co Ordinator, and our Librarian, PIXL Fluency is an intervention that helps pupils to read fluently and comprehend the texts that they are exposed to in lessons. |
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Reciprocal reading |
This is a structured reading intervention, in small groups, which uses guided reading to build comprehension skills, inference skills and confidence with reading. |
