If a student struggles with literacy at secondary - enough that they are not able to read functionally and require extra support with exams - the options are limited.

Reading interventions may show some success, but they take students out of lessons. Specific short-term boosters can be effective, but non-readers have complex needs. Small group work for teenagers who can’t read, while popular, is ineffective. And one-to-one reading practice with a specialist is beneficial but expensive.

So, what to do? After trialling many options, what has been really effective in our school has been a mixture of input from external professionals and training volunteers plus peer-to-peer support. This is not only more sustainable and cost-effective than the above but it also works. Any school leader should be able to implement this two-step strategy.

Identifying needs

First, find out who needs help. To do that, you need to be data rich. We don’t have lots of complicated numbers, but what we do have is used well. Our feeder schools, as well as a Vernon group spelling test delivered by the English department, give us reading and spelling scores for each student. These are easily accessible on the SIMS app for all teachers to view, and parents are informed.

Reading ages are not used: they are demeaning and unscientific. To tell a 15-year-old that they read like an eight-year-old is unfair. Reading is also about experience and language; a Year 11 will have more knowledge than a Year 2, despite any literacy difficulties.

Instead, we follow a simple, colour-coded system - one that aligns with other curriculum areas. Using standardised scores in reading and spelling, purple is code for 115 and above; green is for between 90 and 114; amber for 85 to 89; and red for below 85 (and also those who require readers for exams). The red category denotes “urgent” and amber is an “at risk” group. The latter students might not be under the special educational needs (SEN) department and may have had little support through school because they are on the borderline. In the next year, we hope to create a writing assessment with colour codes to complement the reading and spelling scores.

The local authority SEN specialist service comes in for one day each week. It works with the students who have the weakest literacy. The adviser gives support, assesses and monitors progress, and liaises with two specialist higher-level teaching assistants (HLTAs), who work closely with the SEN service using teaching programmes.

Our next group up of students who struggle see an HLTA for specific literacy help and the final group is invited to the library in extended tutor times on Tuesdays and Thursdays for literacy activities: spelling on computers with software called Wordshark, advice using Read and Write Gold, and a handwriting group led by a HLTA with sixth-form helpers and peer-to-peer reading. Year 11s read with Year 9s, and sixth-formers read with Year 10s and some Year 11s. The English department also runs a short booster on spelling, punctuation and grammar.

Volunteer power

In addition to these interventions, we have an “Adopt a Reader” scheme, which began last year. Once Year 11 and 13 left in the summer term, teachers were asked if they would use “gain time” to read with our 19 “red” Year 9s. The response was excellent and 30 teachers volunteered. (It’s what teachers want to do, isn’t it? Making a difference).

Following a lunchtime training session on areas such as how to help with decoding and comprehension, teachers were matched with “red” students who were taking their GCSE the following year. And, with so many volunteers, some of our “amber” pupils were also targeted.

The project was successful; some teachers completed the summer term and others asked to continue mentoring the student they were assigned until they finished Year 11.

We plan to do the same in this coming summer term, extending the scheme to teaching assistants, and perhaps even to parent volunteers and other school staff.

The experience was valuable on a number of levels and new solutions have been discovered. One teacher was using specialist books with a female student and thought she was reading well. It wasn’t until they moved on to Harry Potter (which she’d always wanted to read but was unable to), that the full extent of her problems became clear. The student found the text too small, and despite efforts from the teacher and the school library, locating a version with larger print proved difficult. Using a Kindle Fire tablet has helped because the background colour can be changed and the text made larger; there is even an inbuilt text-to-speech function to help the student read words she cannot decode.

The Adopt a Reader scheme has helped teachers and the students they have mentored by raising awareness of literacy difficulties, supporting CPD in reading skills and creating a general sense of urgency about getting these young people reading.

Jules Daulby is literacy and language coordinator for Thomas Hardye School in Dorset @julesdaulby