Literacy

We share your passion for literacy and drive to make a positive difference within schools and also understand the pressures of leading the largest subject in the curriculum.

Our literacy specialists can help to support your Head of Literacy or English in developing their skills and knowledge in leading Literacy across the school. This support will help Literacy Leaders to feel confident in making and leading changes in reading, writing, phonics, oracy and SPaG.

Together with your Head of Literacy or English, we can audit current Literacy provision, develop an action plan and support you to implement the plan.

We can work with you to develop an engaging whole school Literacy curriculum, ensuring a clear progression in the growth of knowledge and skills across a child's school journey. Alongside this, we can support you to build a consistent assessment system that enables staff to develop pupil progress through gap analysis.

We can also work alongside you to monitor the implementation and impact of your curriculum intent through a variety of methods, including pupil voice, book looks, observations and learning walks.

Our Literacy specialists also hold Literacy Leader Network Meetings every term – focusing on developing skills as leaders, sharing best practice and building further knowledge of literacy.

Working with children to develop their Literacy skills is our passion. We often work with small groups of children to support them to build knowledge and develop skills such as guided writing and editing.

We are also able to support schools in the run up to stautory assessments, working with children to identify strengths and next steps to support teaching. We are able to create bespoke approaches for individual children and small groups; making a real difference to progress and attainment.

Our Literacy specialists work across the school sector, including developing Literacy in schools with alternative or specialist provision. Working alongside our colleagues in the SEND; Educational Psychology and ETS teams, we support the development and delivery of the Literacy curriculum to support individual pupils.

We tailor all of our approaches and training to your school's specific needs, working alongside you to support your school's journey, whatever the focus.

Working alongside Bridgelea Primary School and Springwood Primary School, we have also adapted the criteria for the One Education Reading Award, meaning that we now have specific criteria for both special schools and alternative provision settings.

Assessment must be both accurate and useful in order to have impact on pupil progress. We can support you to embed bespoke assessment systems that capture useful information whilst being mindful of workload.

We can also work alongside staff to analyse assessment, looking at strengths and gaps in coverage and planning next steps for the classroom.

The team are all Manchester moderators and as such are well-placed to offer advice and support on the assessment of Writing. Our consultant Laura Lodge is also a curriculum expert on Reading for the DfE, and as such is heavily involved in the development of statutory assessments on a national level.

We use this wide bank of knowledge to support schools to moderate their teacher assessments across the curriculum, both as external validators and alongside staff. We also regularly hold moderation training meetings, where teachers can work alongside our staff and other schools to moderate their assessment judgements.

Reading is the key to unlocking the rest of the school curriculum and is a crucial life skill. As such, Reading needs to be right from the very start of a child's school journey.

We can support you to embed the teaching of Reading in EYFS and KS1, focusing on using systematic synthetic phonics for decoding whilst also building understanding and a love of Reading.

A good Reading curriculum begins with quality books and as such we can support you to audit your current book stock, checking that children have access to both phonetically decodable books appropriate to their phonics knowledge and quality texts to share with their families for pleasure.

Vocabulary is vital to life. Research shows that children born into lower socio-economic backgrounds are likely to have less exposure to a wide vocabulary and that this will directly impact their later academic achievement. Understanding the importance of vocabulary and embedding vocabulary building throughout your curriculum is key.

With this in mind, we have developed the 'Vocabulary is V.I.T.A.L. approach to support schools to make vocabulary a priority. We can support you to embed a clear and engaging approach to vocabulary building, including training; in-school support and taking part in measurable research projects.

Reading for understanding is an incredibly important life skill. As good readers, we use a wide repertoire of skills, almost all of them automatic. This means that as adults, we find it challenging to break down the teaching of Reading sufficiently for pupils, often overlying relying on questioning rather than actual teaching reading skills.

The Reading Gems approach was created by our team to support staff to do just that - focus on the teaching of Reading skills, e.g. retrieval, inference and relationship.

Our approach can be made bespoke to suit your needs, suiting both whole class and small group reading styles. We can work alongside staff to choose appropriate texts; embed reading skill-specific subject knowledge; enhance day to day teaching and make assessment useful.

Developing Reading Fluency:

Good reading depends on fluency. However fluency is more than speed. We can support your school to embed approaches to teaching Reading fluency through methods such as echo reading, choral reading and much more. We can provide training for best practice; fluency specific interventions and assessment of reading fluency.

The teaching of Writing is a complex subject and one that requires excellent subject knowledge. We believe in the importance of high quality texts as the foundation for writing teaching and as such we have developed the P.I.C.C. a Text approach.

Working from the starting point of a writing outcome, the sequence guides staff through deciding upon the R.A.F.T. (Reason. Audience. Features. Tone) of their outcome; choosing quality texts; prediction and interrogation of the text; capturing ideas for writing and culminating in writing and editing a final outcome.

Our approach focuses on writing effectively and guiding children to become good writers. We can support you to renew your writing teaching sequence; working alongside staff for bespoke training and development, including model lessons and team teach sessions.

Grammar and Punctuation underpin writing, however the teaching of these concepts needs to be well thought out in order to be successful.

With the advent of the KS1 and KS2 GPaS statutory assessments, many schools have moved towards discrete and less-contextualised grammar teaching. However, research (Safford, 2016) shows that while teaching such as this may increase test scores, it does not support Writing.

We can work with your school to review the teaching of GPaS to ensure it is engaging and creative, benefiting both end of Key Stage assessment and children's ability to write.

Supporting Spelling:

Spelling is a challenging aspect of Writing for many children and teaching spelling needs careful thought. We have a large bank of resources including progression documents for every year group; word lists and diagnostic assessments.

We can support you to develop staff subject knowledge in how to teach spelling effectively and engagingly, assessing children's spelling knowledge and creating a bespoke spelling curriculum for your needs.

Schools often request our help to support children to achieve greater depth in Reading and Writing. We can support you to best develop children's skills and knowledge, challenging them appropriately for their attainment level.

We have developed a suite of training and resources to facilitate greater depth learning, including specific approaches to both Reading and Writing. We are also able to work with groups of children to support them to achieve Greater Depth learning in Reading and Writing, providing an engaging and targeted approach to deepening learning.

Professional development for literacy is important for pupil attainment across the whole curriculum, however smaller budgets and time pressures can make it difficult for school leaders to invest in good quality CPD for their staff.

Our Literacy specialists can support you in making a positive step towards upskilling your staff with a wealth of affordable and flexible CPD options that helps to develop knowledge, skills and expertise across the subject.

Meeting the 'Standard for teachers’ professional development', our CPD is in line with DfE recommendations. Our flexible course are designed to meet the needs of a variety of audiences and can be bespoke to you and your school.

Our Literacy CPD provides you with a range of knowledge, resources and skills whilst our specialists instil in you a love of the subject, enthusiasm and increased motivation.

Demonstrate your school’s commitment to building a successful reading curriculum and inspire a child’s love of reading with the One Education Reading Award.

We offer a huge range of resources for schools to access whilst providing schools with a criteria in order to work towards the accreditation of the award.

The Department of Education have highlighted their focus on improving reading and promoting reading for pleasure; the award will illustrate the priority that your school has given to providing children with the knowledge, skills, passion, and enthusiasm for reading - which will last the whole of their lives.

Depending on your school and reading journey so far, you can choose to work towards the bronze, silver or gold award with the option to apply for the next level of award the following year.

Over seventy schools are now involved with the One Education Reading Award around the country.

For more information on the Reading Award please scroll down the page.

The One Education Reading Award is a Reading quality standard for schools and settings. It is the only Reading quality mark which focuses on the full Reading curriculum offered by schools. Whether you want to improve your Reading offer or celebrate your achievements, the One Education Reading Award offers a straightforward process designed to support your individual needs.

At the heart of the Reading Award is our criteria document which guides schools to develop their Reading provision. Our approach is split into three areas: Reading for Decoding; Reading for Understanding and Reading for Enjoyment.

These three elements of Reading are broken down into key objectives, making next steps clear to schools completing the award. Click here to download an extract from the criteria

With over seventy schools involved from across the country, gaining Reading Award accreditation means you join our network of Reading Award partner schools, learning from one another and growing in practice together.

Reading is a crucial skill and one which needs careful nurturing if it is to thrive. The One Education Reading Award supports school to look critically at their Reading provision, celebrating their achievements and providing support to improve where needed.

With access to amazing resources, CPD opportunities and visits to Reading Award schools, the Reading Award is a truly supportive approach to continuous improvement.

Schools can choose to purchase bespoke in-school support from one of our Reading specialists. Our consultants are experts in their field and can offer targeted guidance and training to suit your needs across the subject. Examples of recent Reading Award support sessions include: developing long term planning; providing CPD on the teaching of Reading skills; conducting pupil and stakeholder voice and much more.

Becoming a Reading Award school also means you benefit from not only our expertise but also the collected experience and knowledge of our family of Reading Award schools. Our schools often develop relationships with other Reading Award schools, learning from each other throughout the process.

By completing the Reading Award, you are showing the world that your school values the importance of Reading and is working hard to ensure all children have access to excellent Reading provision.

Schools first choose which level of the Reading Award they would like to work towards.

• Bronze - good provision is evident in Reading.
• Silver - excellent provision is evident in Reading.
• Gold - excellent provision is embedded across all areas of Reading.

Schools then have one calendar year from purchase to complete the award; using the criteria and resources to guide their development of Reading. Throughout the process, schools gather evidence for each of the criteria and upload this evidence to the hub. We are mindful of workload and wellbeing and therefore we ask for minimal evidence. Schools also have the option of purchasing an upgrade to an in-school evidence review, which removes the need for evidence upload online.

Once you have notified your Reading Award consultant that your evidence is complete, they will review your evidence online. If any evidence is missing, you will be given feedback and time to gather the additional material. Once your Reading Award consultant has completed their review, they will issue you with your completion letter and logo, and order your plaque, which will be delivered to your school once made.

Reading Award accreditation lasts for three years and can be renewed through a streamlined assessment process.

Working in partnership with Bridgelea Primary School, Manchester, and Springwood Primary, Salford, we have adapted the Reading Award criteria to support special schools and alternative provision settings.

Reading is an important life skill and we need to ensure we support all children to access what reading brings. For more information on how we can support your school to develop your approach to Reading, please contact Laura Lodge.

Alongside Prospere Learning Trust we are also developing plans to extend the Reading Award into secondary special schools and alternative provision settings.

If you are interested in working with us as a pilot school in the 2021 – 2022 academic year, please contact us.

Working in partnership with the Prospere Learning Trust, we are currently developing a Secondary School version of the Reading Award. Having a strong and purposeful Reading curriculum is crucial to education at secondary level. The Secondary Reading Award will share many similarities with the existing primary award, including the focus on the three elements of Reading: fluency; understanding and enjoyment.

If you are interested in working with us as a pilot school in the 2021 – 2022 academic year, please contact us.

Over seventy schools are now involved with the One Education Reading Award around the country, with many completing multiple levels of the award.

Our Reading Award schools enjoy sharing their good practice with other settings; if you would like to discuss the Reading Award with one of our partner schools, please contact us.

Our wonderful Reading Award schools are celebrated here:

Our Gold schools
Our Silver schools
Our Bronze schools

The Reading Award resources hub is home to over 250 high-quality resources to support Reading provision in your school. Growing regularly, the resource hub includes leadership resources, planning, book lists, CPD sessions and much more.

Click here to access our free sample resources

Package 1 provides a school with online access to the Reading Award. This is ideal for schools who feel confident to work through the award without bespoke support.

Schools that subscribe to the award gain access to specific guidance, the Reading Award criteria and over 250 quality Reading resources. All schools are also assigned a Reading Award consultant to support them on their journey who can offer advice and recommendations.

Included in the package is:

• An individual Reading Award log on
• Access to the Reading Award criteria and guidance
• Access to the resources hub
• Access to online CPD including webinars
• Access to our secure evidence upload hub
• Support via email
• An online evidence review and feedback
• A Reading Award plaque and logo on completion

Schools who purchase Package 1 are able to upgrade to an evidence review in school if desired. For details of our pricing structure, please contact us.

Package 2 provides a school with online access to the Reading Award and 2 half days of bespoke in-school support. The bespoke support can be completed both remotely or face to face, with the focus for the support being directed by the school.

Schools that subscribe to the award gain access to specific guidance, the Reading Award criteria and over 250 quality Reading resources. All schools are also assigned a Reading Award consultant to support them on their journey who can offer advice and recommendations.

Examples of in-school support include: support to review current practice against the Reading Award criteria; reviewing book stock; conducting CPD training for staff and much more.

Included in the package is:

• 2 half days of bespoke in-school support
• An individual Reading Award log on
• Access to the Reading Award criteria and guidance
• Access to the resources hub
• Access to online CPD including webinars
• Access to our secure evidence upload hub
• Support via email
• An online evidence review and feedback
• A Reading Award plaque and logo on completion

For details of our pricing structure, please contact us.

Package 3 provides a school with online access to the Reading Award and 4 half days of bespoke in-school support. The bespoke support can be completed both remotely or face to face, with the focus for the support being directed by the school.

Schools that subscribe to the award gain access to specific guidance, the Reading Award criteria and over 250 quality Reading resources. All schools are also assigned a Reading Award consultant to support them on their journey who can offer advice and recommendations.

Examples of in-school support include: support to review current practice against the Reading Award criteria; reviewing book stock; conducting CPD training for staff and much more.

Included in the package is:

• 4 half days of bespoke in-school support
• An individual Reading Award log on
• Access to the Reading Award criteria and guidance
• Access to the resources hub
• Access to online CPD including webinars
• Access to our secure evidence upload hub
• Support via email
• An online evidence review and feedback
• A Reading Award plaque and logo on completion

For details of our pricing structure, please contact us.