Building a picture of every child as a reader

At the Whiteoak Academies, it is highly important to us that we build a comprehensive and accurate picture of each child as a reader. In order to do so, we employ a variety of both formative and summative assessment tools.

Phonics assessments and individual trackers build an ongoing picture for those children learning to decode, while NfER papers are completed twice each year (from Years 2-5) to gain an insight into how language comprehension skills are developing. Year 6 pupils undertake a previous year’s Reading SAT at three points across the academic year for this same purpose.

Listening to our children read on a regular basis (using Assessment for Learning strategies in the moment) also provides us with invaluable insights into the progress each child is making in terms of decoding, fluency and comprehension. We regularly use 'The Multi-Dimensional Fluency Rubric' to support us in identifying how we can support children to improve fluency, identifying where we can provide further direct instruction to support expression and volume, phrasing, smoothness and pace.