Building on the successful impact of the English Hub Programme at Primary level, the DfE have launched the secondary school phase of the programme focused on securing the reading of those pupils who begin secondary school having not met the national standard in reading at the end of KS2.

Jerry Clay English Hub is proud to be able to offer Reading Audits to up to 10 secondary partners across the Leeds, Barnsley and Wakefield Region. The audits take a day and would be conducted by a secondary trained Literacy Specialist with extensive experience of teaching children to read.

As part of the Audit, the Literacy Specialist would work with your Literacy Leader to analyse the school’s approach to teaching reading particularly for those pupils who are not yet fluent readers and create an action plan to support this to move forwards. The audit would also release funding to support schools to purchase materials to teach early reading to secondary age pupils. In some cases, the audit could trigger further face to face support from the Literacy Specialist to help leaders to develop early reading with pupils in school.

Although any secondary school may apply for an audit, applications will be selected in the first instance from schools that meet any 2 of the following criteria.

• Secondary schools with a higher than average number of Year 7 pupils who

did not meet the expected standard in the KS2 reading assessment at primary

school. (In 2023/24, 21% of pupils did not meet the expected standard in reading at the end of KS2.)

• Secondary schools where disadvantaged pupils’ KS4 attainment is below the

national average for disadvantaged pupils.2  (In 2023/24, 45.6% of disadvantaged pupils in state-funded mainstream schools achieved grades 9-4 in both

GCSE maths and English. )

• Secondary schools with a higher than average proportion of pupils eligible for

pupil premium.

• Secondary schools with a high proportion of priority groups such as EAL,

FSM, travellers.

• Secondary schools with a higher than average number of pupils with SEND

(based on either the number of pupils on SEN support or the number with an

EHCP).

• Secondary schools where reading has been identified as an area for

development by Ofsted.   

• Secondary schools in which the staff leading in reading are new to their

positions.

Leaders wishing to explore the possibility of an audit further can contact Jerry Clay English Hub to arrange a call with a Literacy Specialist on 01924 303665.

Alternatively, schools wishing to proceed may complete the audit accessed through the link below. Once submitted you will be contacted to book in your audit.