A case study from St Matthew’s Catholic Primary School, Bradford
We decided to work towards the One Education Reading Award as we were looking to further develop our reading provision as a whole school. Our results in reading had slightly dipped, including the number of children passing the Phonics Screening Check and the proportion of children achieving at the expected standard in Key Stage One. After researching carefully, we decided that using the Reading Award criteria would support us in pinpointing precisely the areas we needed to further develop. We decided to work towards the Gold Award as it was best fit for our school. We knew our reading provision was already excellent, we just needed to make some tweaks and embed reading throughout our curriculum to further develop.
Our Reading Award journey began with our consultant working alongside staff to audit our school’s reading provision. This enabled One Education to create a bespoke, individualised plan of action. It also gave us an amazing opportunity to reflect on our achievements as a school and emphasise how much we value reading. We soon found that the changes we introduced, based on One Education’s recommendations, had an immediate positive impact on our children’s learning. We made lots of quick wins as well as longer term improvements. The quality of the coaching and CPD we received from One Education was excellent, with targeted guidance, beneficial not just to teachers and support staff, but our school leaders too. One Education ensure their strategies are supported with extensive evidence and this was really important for us. The Reading Award not only made a positive impact to our summative data, but on areas which are often harder to measure, like attitudes and engagement in reading – particularly for boys.
Taking part in the One Education Reading Award has made a substantial difference to our school. It is something that we have continued to use even after accreditation and this is why it is so worthwhile. The staff and pupils all found it a really enjoyable experience. The whole process took less than 12 months and workload was both minimal and purposeful. We are glad we chose to take part in One Education Reading Award and would highly recommend the accreditation as a means for further development as well as an affirmation of what schools already do very well.
St Matthew’s Headteacher, Katy Cox and English Leader, Sophie Law with their Gold Reading Award.
