Reading Buddies

At Skinners' we believe in the power of reading. It is the gateway to accessing the world around us.

At the SEN department, our Staff are committed to helping pupils become fluent and confident readers.

During PD time, our Staff are giving targeted pupils opportunities to read aloud to their key workers. Our Staff are specially trained to use strategised reading techniques to help improve pupils’ phonological awareness, decoding, and word recognition skills. They are using paired, repeated and chorus reading techniques to holistically tackle pupils’ areas of concern in reading. Our overall goal is to help pupils become confident readers, whilst simultaneously helping to close their development gaps in academia.

Thus far, we’ve had very positive feedback from our key pupils who are part of this initiative. Below are some of the things they have said to describe their experience.

“I am very shy to read in class, but I like reading aloud to my teacher. She helps me fix my mistakes”– Val, Yr 8.

“The teacher helps me say words I find difficult, and she is super nice” – Adam, Yr 7

“I enjoy coming to read. It helps me become more confident” – Daniel, Yr8.

We hope to increase the frequency of these sessions to help students continue to make great progress.