Reading Support Pathways | Curriculum

Reading Support Pathways 2024-25

At The Lowry Academy we have an impressive reading catch-up programme, where we regularly assess students’ reading ability, identify specific, phonological, fluency and comprehension gaps, and place them on the relevant reading support pathway.

We use the NGRT to test every student’s reading age and 'Standard Age Score'. Using these results, we target students who are reading below their chronological age with SAS scores below national average.

The NGRT results are used to place students on the various reading support pathways.

The SAS is based on the student’s raw score which has been adjusted for age and placed on a scale that makes a comparison with a nationally representative sample of same age across the UK.

The average score is 100. The SAS is key to benchmarking and tracking progress and is the fairest way to compare the performance of different students within a year group or across year groups.

Once the NGRT is complete, students are placed onto one of our Reading Support Pathways where they undergo further diagnostic assessment to ensure that this best meets their individual needs.

Pathway	Profile Description
A	NGRT reveals potential phonics gaps - Stanine 1 (Very low)
B	NGRT reveals potential phonics gaps - Stanine 1-3 (Below Average)
C	Reading is limited by poor vocabulary, syntax and grammar knowledge - Stanine 3-5 (Below Average - Average)
D	Reading is limited by poor comprehension and / or fluency - Stanine 3-6 (Below Average - Average)

The Lowry Academy Reading Support Pathways 2024-25.docx

Following short, sharp and highly effective interventions, students are re-tested every six weeks, and move up through the reading support pathways accordingly.

Reading Comprehension & Fluency (Pathways A-D by need)

We closely monitor the reading comprehension and fluency levels of all students involved in our reading support pathways using carefully designed rubrics across a variety of skills. Depending on their individual pathway, students will be exposed to a variety of fiction and non-fiction texts on a variety of themes. The texts are selected from either Lexia or The Literacy Engine and provide sufficient academic challenge and rigour.

Lexonik Leap (Pathway A&B)

Lexonik Leap is a programme that effectively resolves phonic gaps for learners who find literacy particularly challenging and those for whom English is not their first language, rapidly progressing reading, spelling and oracy. The programme is delivered to small intervention groups of four students and is ideal for those on support pathway A and B. Students complete three sessions 30-minute sessions a week with a specially trained Literacy HLTA.

Based on an initial diagnostic assessment, the programme can be adapted to allow for an individualised learning pathway, meaning the duration of the programme is dictated by the level of need. Lexonik Leap is perfect for older students and those learning English as a foreign language.

Students will typically spend a period of 6 weeks on the programme after which their needs will be reassessed. Upon completion of the programme, students will graduate to our Lexonik Advance programme.

Lexonik Advance (Pathway C&D)

Lexonik Advance is an intervention programme that aims to rapidly improve our students reading, spelling and vocabulary comprehension. Lexonik Advance is proven to make immediate, significant and sustainable progress for students of any age. The programme is delivered in small intervention groups by our trained literacy HLTA and is targeted at students on support pathway C and D.

The programme improves student phonological awareness, automaticity, vocabulary and comprehension and leverage metacognition and phased repetition to develop students' fluency and independence in reading. Lexonik Advance trains learners to develop phonological awareness and make links between unknown words using common prefix, stems and suffix definitions.

Learners improve their phonological awareness by working with common syllable sounds, practising until they reach automaticity to aid reading accuracy and fluency. In parallel to this, learners explore polysyllabic, academic vocabulary and are taught a methodology that supports the morphemic analysis of words, which can be applied independently when they need it most.

Learners are selected based on our existing internal school assessment processes, then receive a baseline and post assessment to determine progress.

Reading Enrichment & 1:1 Reading

All students involved in our reading interventions take part in our targeted afterschool reading enrichment. During these sessions students visit the school library and read 1:1 to a member of staff or in a small group. Students are expected to complete two sessions a week. As part of reading enrichment, we also ask that our students read at home at least twice a week and complete a reading journal. This is discussed with students during the intervention session. During these sessions we actively monitor the reading fluency of each student. Reading enrichment sessions take place as long as students remain on our Reading Support Pathways. Students on pathway A complete further sessions of 1:1 reading with a member of teaching staff each week to further support them to develop their reading fluency and skills.

Lexia

Lexia is one of the most rigorously researched reading programmes in the world and will help your child to develop critical reading and language skills through individualised, motivating learning paths via an online platform. Lexia provides a balanced approach to reading covering six areas: phonological awareness, phonics, structural awareness, automaticity, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension. All students on pathways A-D complete Lexia as home learning each week.

Lexia begins with an assessment to place students at the appropriate starting point on the programme and the software then tracks pupils’ progress as they work independently, automatically providing extra practice on areas of difficulty where needed. Additional 1:1 intervention is then targeted as required.

Impact & Results

We are incredibly proud of the impact that our reading pathways is having for our students both on and after they continue their intervention sessions and test students approximately every six weeks to monitor their progress. Our most recent results reflect this and are summarised below.

Key progress statements:

• 38% of students increased SAS

• 65% of students increased Reading Age by an average of 17 months.

• 88% of students made expected progress or higher.

• 33% of the cohort made 12 months progress or above.

• 15% of students made enough progress to graduate from reading support.

• 24% of students progressed to the next reading pathway.

Reading Support Pathways 2024-25

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