At Lealands High School, we are committed to ensuring every student becomes a confident, fluent and enthusiastic reader. Strong reading skills are essential for success across the curriculum and play a key role in students’ future opportunities.

To support this, we have introduced Reading Plus, an online reading development programme used with Year 7 and Year 8 students, and a small number of Year 9 students.
Reading Plus helps students to develop the key skills needed to become successful readers. The programme is designed to:

• build reading fluency and comprehension
• support all ability levels
• provide access to a wide range of engaging, age-appropriate texts
• allow teachers to monitor progress closely and provide support where needed

Students use Reading Plus during their timetabled Reading Mastery lessons in Years 7 and 8 once a fortnight. Some Year 9 students also use the programme during their Literacy lessons.

During each session, students read short online texts matched to their reading level. These texts cover a wide range of topics, including science, technology, real-life stories and global issues, and are followed by short comprehension questions.

Reading Plus supports the development of reading skills but does not replace reading for pleasure. Students will continue to take part in library lessons the following week, where they choose and read physical books to help develop a lifelong love of reading.

Students mainly access Reading Plus during lessons in school, but they may also be asked to complete sessions at home if tasks are not finished during lesson time.

The programme can be accessed on Chromebooks or personal devices through the Discovery Education website using students’ school Google login. A link is also available on the Lealands High School website homepage.

By introducing Reading Plus, we are investing in our students’ future. Confident readers achieve more highly across all subjects, develop stronger vocabulary and communication skills, and become more independent learners.

We look forward to working in partnership with parents and carers to help every student at Lealands High School develop into a skilled and confident reader.