Lincolnshire school wins national reading award

Caistor Yarborough Academy, a Lincolnshire secondary school, has won the national award ‘Most Average Reading Lessons on Reading Plus’.

Caistor Yarborough received this recognition as part of the annual Reading Plus Awards – an event organised by Reading Solutions UK to celebrate the achievements of students, teachers and schools nationwide for their academic achievements using the online reading development programme DreamBox Reading Plus.

Jack Hostead, Assistant Headteacher at Caistor Yarborough, said: “Our students have put in an incredible effort to complete their Reading Plus reading lessons consistently each week at home, so it's great that their achievement is being recognised.”

Out of the 1,400 schools enrolled on Reading Plus, Caistor Yarborough was the school with the highest amount of reading lessons on average for this academic year.

Jack continued: “Reading Plus is just one facet of our whole-school literacy strategy, but an incredibly important one. Since launching in September, students have been exposed to more texts and are reading more than they used to. Their fluency level increase is invaluable when you consider the length of texts students have to get through in GCSE exams.”

Reading Plus is an adaptive reading programme designed for Year 3 to Year 11 students to develop fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension.

A student from Caistor Yarborough said: "Reading Plus is fun and I like trying to meet the challenges to receive the awards. I am starting to read more in my spare time. I am really happy we have won the award because we all try to improve our reading."

The school received a trophy, certificate and £25 Amazon voucher in recognition.

Jack finished: “If increasing exposure to reading is something you are looking for, then definitely consider Reading Plus. It's trackable and even offers tailor-made intervention sessions for certain skills that students have gaps with.”

Nick Mills, Reading Development Consultant at Reading Solutions UK, said: “The outstanding effort by all of the students and teachers at Caistor Yarborough Academy is wonderful to see. We can’t wait to see what they achieve next year.

“We are thrilled that Caistor Yarborough has benefitted from Reading Plus. It is always fantastic to hear about the programme’s positive impact on student and school outcomes.”

To find out more about Reading Plus, visit www.readingsolutionsuk.co.uk/.