Literacy and Numeracy Catch-Up Premuim

Oaklands School received £5,808 in funding for the academic year 2019/2020. Pupils eligible are those who do not meet the “expected” standard at KS2 testing in the summer before entry to KS3.

Interventions 2019 - 2021

Students in years 7-10 were regularly tested. Students requiring literacy catch-up were identified from this data and allocated an appropriate literacy intervention. These interventions included:

• Lexia online programme - Lexia has been used for several years at the school, and from September 2019 we used the new and improved Lexia PowerUp programme. This has been adapted to cater for the needs of all secondary school students and focuses on Grammar, Comprehension and Spelling.  This programme is normally used with students whose KS2 scaled score is less than 100, and therefore benefit most from intensive practice with both decoding and comprehension skills.
• Small group reading lessons – this is aimed at students in year 7 and 8 and is run by a qualified SEN teacher for two sessions per week. This intervention is aimed at students who fall in the lower average range in reading who need specific intervention in areas of reading such as comprehension and inference skills.
• Study support sessions, Learning Hub – the Oaklands School learning hub, combining a library and IT suite, is open to students before school, during breaks and at lunch allowing students to use the excellent study space for homework, reading and independent study. After school support sessions are supervised by teaching staff
• Accelerated reader – All students in years 7 and 8 were enrolled onto the accelerated reader programme. This diagnostic tool supports students to make informed reading choices which will provide appropriate stretch and challenge to improve their skills. The programme involves a termly “Star test” to assess and track progress

Our mathematics department regularly assess progress in numeracy. As a school we invest in the “Hegarty Maths” online resource. All students at Oaklands are provided with a login to this website which enables students to access practice problems, building their confidence and independence

The future of literacy at Oaklands

At Oaklands we are committed to ensuring that no student is limited in their attainment by low literacy skills. As such, literacy across the curriculum and the quality of our literacy interventions are both key parts of our school improvement plan. We are currently in the process of training staff to deliver a new, bespoke intervention programme in partnership with an organization called Thinking Reading. This programme will begin supporting Oaklands students in their literacy development from Spring term 2022.