A Consistent Path to Reading Success: St Francis of Assisi’s Journey with Ready Steady Read Together

Victoria Oxley, Assistant Headteacher at St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Primary School, recently spoke with our CEO about the impact of Ready Steady Read Together in her school. Serving a community with significant levels of disadvantage, the school faces complex challenges, including high numbers of pupils with English as an Additional Language and additional learning needs. In this conversation, Victoria reflects on the journey her school has taken with the programme, how it has strengthened teaching practice and the measurable improvements it has brought to reading outcomes for their pupils.

Tell me about the context of your school.

We are a city school in a very disadvantaged area - one of the most deprived in the country. Pupil premium is 38% and EAL is 73%. Beyond this, with the changing dynamics of SEND, the need is so much greater than it ever has been. Our SEND is 31%, so we have many different challenges.  Many of our 221 children arrive to school with no English at all. Communication & Language is significantly behind where it should be, so we have a massive job in terms of catching those children up to national expectations and beyond.

What about the impact then?

I can only put it down to the sequenced and comprehensive set of resources that the staff can use and the confidence that they build with those resources. It is this consistent framework that is really, really crucial for us. It has had massive impact on data. Last year, we got 84% at expected and 39% at greater depth for reading, which is just phenomenal. That is a consistent picture for us now. We would have struggled to top 60% in previous years. So yeah, it has been a journey, but the consistency is absolutely there now. And we love it. We really love it.

Historically then your data was different?

Yes, historically we had 63% ARE which would have been our top for reading in Year 6 at the most - it was always a real struggle to get children there. Greater Depth was at 10%.

So it is impact over time then?

What I do often find now is that our Year 5 cohort is very much in-line with Year 6. So actually, Year 6 is no longer a struggle. It's not all on the Year 6 teacher anymore. It's a nice steady path of, right, let's just continue building on those foundations. I know the last Year 5 cohort were well into the 80s (%) for ARE and the 30s (%) for greater depth. When you get those figures lower down school, something is right. Many of these children are ready to do their SATs now, for sure.  Again, in our present Year 6 we already have 25 children out of 30 making expected.

Historically, it was always a case of looking at the quick wins. How can we get some quick wins here to close those gaps? Whereas now it's about how can we deepen that knowledge of reading and the skills of reading, to be able to really let them shine?  And our children definitely shine. They go into the SATs assessments not phased. They know that they are so ready and so prepared with everything that they've built up over the last few years, to be able to really help themselves shine.

So with such strong data, it’s clearly working for your vulnerable groups too. Tell me a bit more about that.

Yes, the wealth of resources that come with it, in terms of supporting and scaffolding learning, really helps. The pictures that you have, the images that go with the language and the way that it's very visual for children all work really well. The way that you have all the tabletop resources too. Whenever I go into sessions, it's always like children have a little personal desk set up. They've got every scaffold around them that they need to be able to tap into to be successful within that lesson.  

Tell me a bit more about the website and the resources that are there for you as a leader.

As a leader, the biggest confidence I have is in you at Literacy Counts. Everything that is put in and implemented is purely because of what's happening in the background in government policy.  So, when we're looking at the curriculum review, you can already see that those changes are being implemented. This just allowed me as a leader to know that the quality resource that we are using is doing everything and we're already ahead of the times.  That's important, isn't it, in such a changing landscape.

I love the CPD online too. I think that's an incredible tool. We continue to refer back to it and we very much cycle our training around it. We get an overview of it first, but then we revisit it. This deepens our knowledge and understanding. It's just readily available to us when we need it, so training is very much personalised to what we need, which is important.

It also gives me the confidence as well. So, if I do lesson ‘drop ins’ and give feedback, I can have a look and refer to that CPD myself in terms of the feedback that I'm giving, which is in-line with what the programme's expecting of us. This provides triangulation.

What would be the feedback that you get from teachers and children about the resource itself? What's their voice in all of this?

The teachers love the wide range of stories. They said there's such a great mix. There's a really great sequence to it which allows them to get into the flow of being able to teach reading effectively - it really empowers them. They love teaching reading and the children love listening to reading. The children love talking about and being part of reading. And yes, for us, this is one of our biggest, biggest successes by far.

What about the support you have had from Literacy Counts?

Because we do the 3 development days across the year, they really do support us. It just allows me to have a day of headspace to just do reading.  And it allows the teachers to have that consistent professional coaching from somebody who knows the scheme inside out. Those days really are enriching. They help us just power ahead with what's next.

If you were to reflect then on Ready Steady Read Together, what would be your headline? What would be the most noticeable difference that you've seen from this whole class shared reading resource?

I would say it has empowered both teachers and children who now thoroughly enjoy reading. And this is because there is such of a wide range of texts - there's always something for everybody. I mean, the exposure to what the children get through - it's phenomenal. They pick up books that they would never otherwise see. Poetry is there and you've got your fiction balanced with your non-fiction, so that complete coverage is all there.

So Ready Steady Read Together works because…

It's very well sequenced. It has enriching resources that empower teachers to be able to teach to the best of their ability so that children can learn in the best way possible, but also while enjoying learning.

Ready Steady Read Together is already helping hundreds of schools raise reading standards and build confident, motivated readers. Discover why so many teachers are choosing it as their shared reading solution today.