News Blog

We were delighted to welcome Alex Quigley, author of educational titles such as 'Closing the Reading Gap'  back to our TKAT Reading Conference last week. Alex skilfully built the case for reading as the most important focus for us in schools. 

The event was well attended with 80 participants who found the keynote ‘Closing the Reading Gap’ deepened their understanding of how children learn to read but also offered practical strategies for closing the reading gap. One participant remarked that, ‘it made me feel 100% confident in everything we are doing’.

A second workshop focussed on reading across the curriculum also defined disciplinary literacy as well as offering practical strategies for schools.  This session was excellent and tied in well with wider work in the Trust focussed on curriculum, reinforcing key messages about securing key knowledge, building schemas and developing vocabulary linked to key concepts.

Finally, the last workshop session led by Dr Julie Blake explored the DfE -funded ‘Poetry By Heart’ and introduced the excellent resources to support with curriculum planning. Her session also linked with Alex Quigley’s keynote with it’s focus on teaching fluency and reading comprehension. 

Dr Blake introduced the way that we can work with ‘Poetry By Heart’ to create an inter Trust competition to promote oracy, widen curriculum and drive reading for pleasure.  One senior leader remarked that she ‘was as excited by engaging children across the Trust in the competition as by the diverse range of resources to support curriculum planning’.

Thank you to all involved.