The Department for Education’s Reading Framework has been updated and expanded.
By the end of Year 6, pupils’ reading and writing should be sufficiently fluent and effortless to manage the curriculum’s general demands in year seven across all subjects and not just in English.
Loss of learning over the summer holidays might account for some pupils’ initial struggle in secondary school, but any dips rebound quickly. Pupils’ success depends on their learning academic vocabulary – which depends on their ability to decode and understand this new vocabulary readily.
The most important task, especially at transition, is to identify the pupils whose reading is poor and who, as a result, have negative attitudes towards school.
The guidance states the importance of secondary teachers understanding how reading is taught from the beginning and how it develops before pupils enter year 7. It outlines some of the different challenges of teaching reading in the secondary school curriculum. It supports secondary schools in teaching pupils who still need to meet the KS2 expectations in reading.
The reading framework: What is it?
The reading framework guides primary and secondary schools to help them meet ‘existing expectations for teaching reading’.
The document is lengthy, spanning 176 pages and covering 13 sections: The sections in bold are relevant to supporting reading in Key Stage 3.
- Section 1: The importance of reading and a conceptual model
- Section 2: Language Comprehension in Reception and Key Stage 1
- Section 3: Word reading and spelling
- Section 4: Developing fluency
- Section 5: Pupils who need the most support
- Section 6: What skilled readers can do
- Section 7: Choosing and organising books
- Section 8: Developing a reading for pleasure culture
- Section 9: Reading across the curriculum
- Section 10: Teaching reading in the English lesson
- Section 11: National assessments
- Section 12: Leadership and management of reading
- Section 13: Supporting pupils’ reading in key Stage 3.
The most important sections for Secondary Schools
Every Key Stage 3 teacher must know which pupils have poor decoding skills and take action to support their reading. (See sections 5 and 9).
Secondary schools must know how reading is taught in primary schools (see sections 1 – 4).
Sections 7 and 8 address how to develop pupils’ engagement in reading.
The guidance has a few key aims, including:
- Setting out the research underpinning the importance of talk, stories and phonics, highlighting the importance of fidelity to phonics programmes outlining the DfE’s evidence-informed position on the best way to teach reading
- Supporting schools to evaluate their teaching of reading from Reception to year nine by offering schools a set of audit tools
- Providing practical support for high-quality teaching of phonics, fluency and comprehension
- Explaining the importance of phonics teaching for older pupils at risk of failing to learn to read because they cannot decode well
- Supporting schools in fostering a love of reading in pupils
- Supporting schools working with parents to help their children learn to read.
The reading framework: Who is it for?
Writing in his foreword for guidance, Schools Minister Nick Gibb states that a significant number of schools (92%) report having read the original framework, published in July 2021 and 66% report going on to make changes to how they teach reading as a result of the guidance.
The framework is non-statutory, but primary and secondary schools are encouraged to use the guidance from Reception to KS3.
The reading framework: What has changed?
Many updates have been included, with the guidance growing from 115 to 176 pages.
Advice for key stages 2 and 3
When the reading framework guidance was first published by the DfE in 2021, it contained guidance and advice for those working in Reception and key stage 1.
This expanded guidance now covers key stages 2 and 3 as well.
This includes specific examples of children in key stages 2 and 3 who would require additional reading support and what that support would look like.
Section 13 of this framework focuses on supporting pupils in KS3 with reading, including identifying those who need support when moving from primary to secondary school.
Emma Adcock – VNET Principal Teaching and Learning Consultant, July 2023