Reading at the Skegness Academy

At the Skegness Academy, reading is at the heart of everything we do; we are a reading school.

We recognise reading, and the love of independent reading for pleasure, as being at the core of academic success across all subjects, and we work hard to ensure that all of our students receive an education that is embedded into a culture of reading. Our SKA Reading and Literacy Policy for 2022/23 lays out the specifics of our mission to develop reading progress at Skegness Academy, and can be found on this page.

The heart of our reading mission is the newly refurbished SKA Library, which re-opened in October 2022. From this space, all staff and students are able to borrow books, seek expert guidance on challenging their independent reading choices, and take part in the various lunchtime clubs that are offered by staff. Our SKA Reading Lists are always available to aid students, and their families, in selecting suitably challenging reading material.

The library also houses our incredible SKA Book Vending Machine, from which students can earn books that are theirs to keep via our Reading Rewards Programme.

 

In KS3, every day begins with 20 minutes of ‘Register and Read’, wherein students listen and follow as their form tutors read aloud. The same text is read by the entire year group, ensuring a shared reading experience among peers, and promoting subsequent conversations about these texts.

At key points throughout the year, all students have their reading ages measured using the National Group Reading Test (NGRT), ensuring that all staff are equipped with the information required to teach reading to all.

In Year 7 and 8, our students who require rapid acceleration of their reading progress will be placement tested for our exciting new Direct Instruction (DI) programme, with qualifying students being enrolled onto Englemann’s Corrective Reading programme to ensure that all students enter Year 9 reading at their age-expected level. Where DI is not appropriate for a student, we also use Read Write Inc.’s Fresh Start programme, delivered by our SEND department.

Reading assumes a key position in all subject lessons, with each subject promoting how to “read like a…[subject specialist]” via posters that adorn the entrance to each classroom.

Taking pride alongside our “read like a…” posters are our “books that changed our lives” posters, where each member of staff reflects on the book that has most impacted them so far; all of these life-changing texts can be borrowed from our school library.

Finally, we have come together to form our SKA Canon, with subject leaders and their teams selecting three texts that they consider to be canonical to the study of their subject; again, these texts can all be borrowed from our school library.