How Can the Pawsome Gang improve Reading in KS2?

October 16th 2023

The transition from KS1 to KS2 is historically a demanding one for all children. From experience we know that children can often struggle with increased expectations in all areas. In particular the demand on their reading capabilities increases exponentially as the children are required to read confidently and for meaning across the whole curriculum.

Two years ago, we introduced the PIRA assessment platform to give us accurate, real time data on how our children are performing in reading.

This data not only gave us useful information about the children’s reading age and averages across the cohort but also gave us a comprehensive gap analysis on which of the reading domains individual children and groups within the cohort were struggling with.

Using this information, we could begin to put together intervention material to help support and improve reading in all areas. We were able to start to identify and pinpoint the sort of skills that we can work on with individuals and groups of children. In particular, we decided to focus on 5 key areas of reading:

Vocabulary
Retrieval (comprehension)
Inference
Prediction
Sequencing

We wanted to find resources that were high quality but also something that the children could really resonate with.

Introducing the Pawsome Gang

Each of the dogs introduces one of the 5 reading domains in a child-appropriate way. Introducing this new resource material means that the same vocabulary is used by all teachers so the children really understand what each of the reading skills mean. Each of the dogs gives the children targeted reading practice in a particular area. The idea is to keep repeating the same language and skills so it becomes embedded in the children’s understanding.

In order to facilitate this, each class has 5 guided reading slots allocated on the timetable each week of approximately 30 mins. A guided reading rotation or carousel has been established to allow the teacher to read with each child as part of a group each week. A teaching assistant has also been timetabled so that each child gets a second opportunity to work with an adult during the week.

This half term, a specific dog (reading domain) has been focused on every 2 weeks.

Our Hope

Children will have regular targeted opportunities to practise the reading skills they find hardest with the Teacher and the Teaching Assistant. This will help support their learning in all areas of the curriculum and will be reflected in improved data results for each child. However, ultimately we hope it will create a lifelong love and enjoyment of reading.

The Role of the Parent/Carer

The parent's role in reading is a vital one. Every parent should ensure their child has a Pawsome Gang bookmark in their planner with the prompt questions.