Literacy Strategy

The New Group Reading Test (NGRT)

We are committed to ensuring every student can fully access the curriculum and achieve their potential. We use regular reading checks to find each student's "reading age". This helps us make sure the books and tasks they get in every class are at just the right level—challenging enough to help them grow, but never so hard they feel stuck. To support this, we use the New Group Reading Test (NGRT), a termly assessment delivered via the Testwise platform.

What is the NGRT?

The NGRT is a standardised, digital assessment designed by GL Assessment. It is "adaptive," meaning the questions automatically adjust in real-time. If a student is doing well, the questions become more challenging; if they struggle, the questions become more accessible. This ensures a positive experience for all students while providing an accurate picture of their reading skills.

Why do we use it?

Reading is the "master skill" that unlocks all other subjects. A student’s ability to understand a complex science question or a history source depends heavily on their reading level. We use NGRT to:

• Identify Support: Quickly spot students who may need extra help or literacy interventions.

• Provide Challenge: Identify high-ability readers who need further stretching.

• Monitor Progress: By testing at different points in the year, we can see how much progress your child is making and adjust our teaching accordingly.

Understanding the Results

Following the assessment, the school receives several pieces of data, the most common being reading age. A reading age is more than just a number on a report; it is a vital tool that allows our teachers to tailor their instruction to the specific needs of every student. By understanding the "functional reading level" of a child, we can ensure that the work they do in class is both accessible and appropriately challenging. 

How can parents help?

There is no need for students to "revise" for the NGRT. The best way to prepare for this test is to encourage regular reading for pleasure at home. Whether it is fiction, non-fiction, or news articles, consistent exposure to challenging texts is the most effective way to improve reading stamina and vocabulary.

Tutor Reading 

Reading is a fundamental skill that underpins success across the curriculum.

Our aim is that every student at Havant develops an ambitious literacy skill set including fluency in reading, language capital and comprehension; enabling them to succeed as articulate and dynamic young people. 

During tutor time, our teachers lead by example by reading out loud. This helps students enjoy stories and see how much fun reading can be, acting as a passport to new ideas and opening up the world around them. This collaborative approach allows students to:

• Hear great storytelling: Tutors model fluent reading and oracy.

• Build vocabulary: We explore the "writer’s craft" and new language in context.

• Connect with the world: We use these stories to discuss current events, personal values, and shared experience as part of the personal development curriculum. 

Example texts below

Year 7 

The Unforgotten Coat by Frank Cottrell Boyce

Goldfish Boy by Lisa Thomson

Pig Heart Boy by Malorie Blackman

The Girl of Ink and Stars by Kiran Millwood Hargrave

Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve

Brightstorm by Vashti Hardy

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle. 

Year 8 

The Black Book of Secrets by F.E Higgins

Are You There God, It’s Me, Margaret? By Judy Blume

Welcome to Nowhere by Elizabeth Laird

Watership Down by Richard Adams

Coram Boy by Jamila Gavin

Bone Sparrow by Zana Fraillon

Year 9

They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvero

Island at the End of Everything by Kiran Millwood

Chinese Cinderella by Adeline Yen Mah

Face by Benjamin Zephaniah

Knife Edge by Malorie Blackman

Operation Hurricane by Benjamin Shaw

Musical Truth by Jeffrey Boakye

Year 10 

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

When our Worlds Collided by Danielle Jawando

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

The Outsiders by S.E Hinton

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Run Rebel by Manjeet Mann

Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson

Maladapted by Richard Kurti. 

We believe that every teacher is a teacher of language. To prepare for GCSEs, students must move beyond "everyday" speech and gain confidence in using the formal language of scholars.

Following the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) recommendations, we use a targeted strategy for Mastering New Words across all departments. Our goal is to create word-conscious classrooms where language is not just taught, but celebrated and explored.

1. Strategic Selection: Tiers of Vocabulary

We don't ask students to memorise every word in a textbook; we prioritise the words that unlock the most meaning. Our curriculum planning focusses on two specific categories:

• Tier 2 (High-Utility Academic Words): These are words found across many subjects, such as analyse, evaluate, consistent, or hypothesis. Mastering these allows students to access complex exam questions in any classroom.

• Tier 3 (Subject-Specific Terminology): These are the technical "power words" unique to a field, like photosynthesis in Science, iambic pentameter in English, or glaciation in Geography. Learning these words will allow our students to become experts in each subject area. 

2. Building "Mouth-Memory": Call and Response

Before a student can write a word, they must be comfortable saying it. We use Call and Response (often called "I Say, You Say") to build confidence and ensure accurate pronunciation:

1. Model: The teacher says the word clearly, emphasising the syllables (e.g., "E-ty-mo-lo-gy").

2. Response: The whole class repeats the word in unison.

3. Refine: If the word is tricky, we might "whisper it," "shout it," or clap out the syllables together.

Why this matters: Pronouncing a word correctly removes the "fear factor." If a student can say stratification confidently, they are far more likely to use it in their written work.

3. Long-Term Retention: Knowledge Organisers

To ensure Tier 3 vocabulary isn't forgotten after a single lesson, we use Knowledge Organisers as a central tool for retrieval. These documents act as a "vocabulary map" for every topic.

• Explicit Definitions: Every Knowledge Organiser contains a dedicated glossary of Tier 3 terms with student-friendly definitions.

• Dual Coding: Where possible, words are paired with icons or diagrams to help students create a mental image of the concept.

• Spaced Retrieval: Teachers use these organisers for "low-stakes" quizzes during lessons, ensuring students revisit and reinforce their understanding of key terms over weeks and months, not just days.

4. The Word-Conscious Classroom

We aim to make language "visible" in every room. A word-conscious classroom is an environment where students are encouraged to be "word detectives."

• Morphology & Etymology: We teach students how to "crack the code" of new words by looking at their history and structure.

  • Morphology: Breaking words into prefixes and suffixes. Knowing 'anti-' means "against" helps a student understand antibody in Science and anticlimax in English.

  • Etymology: Exploring word origins. Learning that 'bene' comes from the Latin for "good" connects benefit, benevolent, and benign.

Extra Support for Your Child’s Reading

We understand that some students may need some additional support with reading. If a student is struggling with reading, we provide additional support. This extra attention helps them catch up quickly and feel more comfortable in the classroom.

We want every student to feel confident when they pick up a book or an exam paper. Based on our regular reading checks, we provide different levels of support tailored to what each child needs:

• Support in Every Classroom (Universal Support): For students who are reading at or near their age level, teachers use reading data to make sure their lessons are easy to follow. This might include using reading rulers, larger fonts, or providing a list of key words to help them understand new topics.

• Focused Small Group Help: Students who are between 1 and 3 years behind their reading age receive extra help during their English "Faster Read" lessons. These small groups work with staff to improve how smoothly they read and how well they understand more complex stories.

• Specialist Reading Support: For students who find reading more difficult (3 or more years behind their reading age), we provide "Fresh Start Phonics". These sessions happen three times a week during tutor time with a trained specialist who helps them master the building blocks of reading.

Useful Links