Learning

The Milton Keynes Reading for Life Project

In this exciting project, secondary schools across Milton Keynes are working together to support staff (teachers, teaching assistants and school leaders) to develop their knowledge and confidence in teaching reading to enable everyone to support the students they work with to become proficient readers who can access the secondary curriculum.

This was identified as a key development priority by the headteachers of all secondary schools in Milton Keynes.

Work developing the project began in July 2022 with a group of leaders (headteachers, English and whole school literacy leaders) meeting together and then working with Alex Quigley to identify priorities for the project’s action plans. Although evidence shows the importance of continuing to support reading through the whole secondary phase of education, it was decided to focus initially on Key Stage 3.

Progress so far

The project was launched with the Heads of English and whole-school literacy leads of Milton Keynes’ secondary schools in November 2022. An online platform has been set up to enable all schools to contribute and share resources as well as having access to the records of all project planning meetings. All Heads of English and leaders of whole school literacy have been given access to this platform.

Surveys

Students and staff completed short surveys in January 2023 to provide some useful information to help plan our work on this project. Each school has been provided with dashboards showing the survey findings and comparing the responses with the averages for each question across Milton Keynes as a whole.

Staff Survey Findings

The findings from the staff survey provide some helpful insights into how everyone feels about their knowledge and confidence in teaching reading at the start of this project.

The focus was on their confidence in meeting the literacy needs of the students they work with and how they feel about the support they receive, including professional development, to meet these needs. The aim was also to find out whether this varied depending on their role, recognising the important contribution teaching assistants make in supporting the reading development of students they work with.

Teachers were asked to indicate which subjects they teach to investigate whether there are variations in teacher confidence and professional development support across the curriculum. The variations within schools and across Milton Keynes may suggest areas of the curriculum where further professional development might be beneficial and appreciated by teachers of those subjects.

Student Survey Findings

The findings from the student survey help us to understand how students in Years 7, 8 and 9 feel about their reading in school and their reading for interest or enjoyment outside lessons and school.

The focus was on their understanding of texts and vocabulary used in lessons and in assessments, as well as how they feel about the support they receive for their reading in school. Students indicated how they feel about the progress they are making in reading. There were also questions about their enjoyment of reading outside lessons and school recognising other important purposes of reading as an important life skill.

While recognising any limitations, the survey findings do provide a very positive view about the importance placed on the teaching of reading in our schools for both staff and students.

Working with Alex Quigley

We are delighted to be working with Alex Quigley, author of the ‘Closing the Gap’ series, who is supporting the strategic planning for the project as well as delivering some professional development sessions with teachers, leaders and other professionals supporting students with their reading across the curriculum in our schools in Milton Keynes.

Teaching Reading Toolkit

Work has begun to develop a ‘toolkit’ of ideas and strategies to support the teaching of reading in all schools which can be adapted to meet their own needs. It will include sections on:

• What every teacher and other professional needs to know about reading
• Vocabulary: Teaching to unlock reading!
• Developing successful readers: ‘Powerful knowledge for powerful reading!’
• Appendices – other useful resources.

Over time, this toolkit will aim to develop a range of useful resources that can be used across the curriculum in our schools.

Thank you for your interest in this project which we believe will enable the young people we work with to become successful readers by developing our professional knowledge, skills and confidence in teaching reading.

Contact us »