Eden Boys' Leadership Academy in Birmingham East, West Midlands, is an academy-led, leadership-driven academy for years 7 to 13 (KS3 - KS5). The school encourages all of its students to live according to the Star Academies STAR values of, Service Teamwork, Ambition, and Respect. A Muslim faith academy, it will accept students from all faiths and none. Eden is part of Star Academies, a high-achieving multi-academy trust with 22 other secondary schools around the UK.
ReadingWise was selected in 2022 to be the literacy intervention across all of the Star Academies secondaries.
Star Academies provides numerous opportunities for students in all of its schools, such as extra-curricular and leadership development, and is well-equipped to support and improve schools that were struggling before they joined the academy group. Star Academies is also skilled at supporting teachers, TAs, SENDCos and leadership teams in schools where there is a higher-than-average number of pupils with SEND and EAL needs.
Take a look at our work with Star Academies.
Star Academies selected ReadingWise Comprehension and ReadingWise Decoding in February 2022. Both interventions are in place at Eden Boys' Leadership Academy, and the school continues working with ReaidngWise to support learners into the future.
In January 2023, Eden Boys' Leadership Academy had its Ofsted inspection, achieving an Outstanding grade.
Ofsted Report Inspection of an Outstanding School: Eden Boys' Leadership Academy
At ReadingWise, we are proud to champion the schools we work with. Here are a few of the highlights from the report:
“Pupils benefit from an exceptional education at Eden Boys’ Leadership Academy.”
“Leaders and teachers share strong school values of service, teamwork, ambition and respect. These are woven throughout the school. Staff and pupils live out these values every day. A mutually respectful ethos permeates the school.”
“Pupils achieve impressive outcomes, including those from disadvantaged backgrounds and pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Teachers focus on those who need additional support in their learning. This helps to ensure that everyone achieves well.”
What Does the Ofsted Report Say About Reading?
“Reading is a high priority across the school.”
“Teachers tell pupils about subject-specific texts that will develop their understanding. Reading for pleasure is encouraged.”
"Pupils read ambitious texts during tutor time, such as ‘A Tale of Two Cities’ by Charles Dickens. Those who are behind in reading are supported and rapidly improve.”
As this shows:
- When secondary schools prioritise reading, as Eden Boys clearly does, children can enjoy reading more and achieve better results.
- When children haven’t progressed in their reading as well as hoped at primary school (especially pupils with SEND or EAL needs), they can struggle more when reaching secondary. It is crucial to put literacy intervention programmes in place as quickly as possible.
- Children of all ages who are struggling can catch up and reading will improve when additional support is provided, such as through ReadingWise programmes.
- As we can see at Eden Boys, this contributes to higher reading and literacy attainment levels, confidence, and enjoyment. When children are more skilled at reading that has a positive impact on pupils' entire learning experience across the curriculum.
How ReadingWise Supports Reading and Literacy at Eden Boys' Leadership Academy
ReadingWise is an online, DfE evidence-backed, intervention programme designed for every aspect of reading – decoding, comprehension, and vocabulary. Our programmes and modules, plus an extensive online library, provide leaders, teachers, TAs, and SENDCos with a coherent, unified approach to improving literacy.
To support literacy and reading across the school, Eden Boys benefits from access to the following modules:
The Decoding Module
So much more than just another phonics programme. For Years 2-11. Our Decoding module, for primaries and secondaries, develops deep independence in learners, empowers them, and consistently improves reading ages by over 9 months in just 20 hours.
Decoding is a powerful literacy intervention module:
- The journey starts by assessing a learner’s reading age, then creating a carefully structured, personalised learning journey.
- Learners work through letter/sound correspondences, blends, and progress through common endings, words, and increasingly complex sentences using a variety of innovative approaches to unlock decoding.
- Decoding starts with letter sound recognition and progresses through to include every four-syllable word found in the first 3 Harry Potter books.
Decoding Delivery
20-25 minute sessions 3-5 times a week. Supervised by 1 trained TA working with 10 learners.
The Comprehension Module
A powerful, engaging, and fun literacy intervention module to develop meaning making delivered through narrative stories suitable for primary and secondary age pupils. Its content, structure, and design deliver age-appropriate sessions that foster independence and strategies that travel beyond the intervention sessions.
ReadingWise Comprehension empowers learners through key strategies:
- Strategies include questioning, summarising, and thinking ahead to help transform reluctant readers into enthusiastic, confident book-hungry pupils.
- Work through structured sessions, with supporting lesson plans, developing 4 ‘Mega Skills’ – the core strategies for improving understanding and building a reader’s agency and self-esteem.
Comprehension Delivery
10 week programme, optimally a 45-minute sessions run twice a week in groups of 10, with one trained member of staff.
The Vocab Module
A special vocabulary programme for learners aged 6 - 16 (Years 2-11), for primaries and secondaries.
Vocab aims to reinforce words that you are bringing to life in the classroom. You are providing context - we are helping embed the words in pupils' long-term memories.
- Our system carefully scaffolds your word lists and delivers sequenced, spaced learning to interrupt the forgetting curve.
- The system knows when your learners have mastered a word and can move it into a revision cycle.
- Your learners will interact with word classes, definitions, example sentences, synonyms, antonyms, and images; as their confidence increases, the scaffolding decreases.
Vocab Delivery
10 minute sessions 3-5 times a week - at home, at school, or a mix of both. Evidence suggests shorter, more regular sessions are better than longer, less frequent sessions.
The Zip Module
An adaptive supplementary phonics programme to plug the gaps. Many secondaries use Zip to great effect. It proves useful when pupils come from primary schools with gaps in their phonics, or when children are new arrivals and are new to English.
- Zip uses adaptive learning via an algorithm to understand how secure a pupil is with a letter/ word-sound correspondence.
- Zip has proven to be particularly beneficial in schools with EAL pupils where it can also be used to support the school’s home engagement strategy.
Zip Delivery
5-10 minute sessions a few times a week – at school or home. Sessions can be supervised by one trained member of staff, but Zip affords high levels of independence.
Training for schools and teachers
Staff at every level, including teachers, TAs, literacy leads, and SEND specialists, were trained in Zip, Vocab, Comprehension, and Decoding, the four modules deployed to raise reading levels across this outstanding secondary school.
Over 300,000 pupils in UK schools have completed a ReadingWise programme! We hope to help you and your children, too.
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