Dear Staff,

I will be focusing on Year 6 reading over the next few weeks. As you know, our school data concentrates on the children having ‘positive attitudes’ so if they seem to be smiling then you must ‘meet’ their objectives (see below).

If they are shy or don’t appear to be enjoying reading, do not tick ‘met’ even though they understand the text. The objectives are very clear – ‘they must have a positive attitude’.

Our school data program requires you to collect evidence for 21 reading objectives. The weighting for each one is equally spread. However, the SATs paper is weighted differently. For example, 15% of our school reading objectives focus on ‘word meaning, retrieval and inference’ compared to around 80% on the SATs paper.

So, do you spend more time teaching ‘word meaning, retrieval and inference’ to ensure a good SATs score or do you thinly spread your teaching to cover the school’s 21 objectives to make your TA data look good?

SATs weighting:

reading analyses

You can’t really win. Some of our school objectives are perfectly vague so do your best to collect evidence for them. I have listed a few below with some guidance to help you along your way.

  • Maintain positive attitudes to reading by reading and discussing an increasingly wide range of fiction, poetry, plays, non-fiction and reference books or textbooks

Our non-fiction and poetry books in school are mostly over ten years old but children used to enjoy them. We have a few reference books in the library but someone said the children now use the ‘google’ book. I haven’t seen it in the library. I must look out for it. Do the best you can.

  • Maintain positive attitudes to reading by increasing their familiarity with a wide range of books, including myths, legends and traditional stories, modern fiction, fiction from our literary heritage, and books from other cultures and traditions

I am not sure we have these books in school; certainly not enough for everyone to access properly. Make sure children have positive attitudes towards the books we do have and then you can tick ‘met’.

  • Maintain positive attitudes to reading by preparing poems and plays to read aloud and to perform, showing understanding through intonation, tone and volume so that the meaning is clear to an audience

If a child doesn’t use their voice correctly then you have to assume they have no understanding of the poem so do not tick ‘met’. If they understand the poem but seem to have a negative attitude then do not tick ‘met’.

  • Maintain positive attitudes to reading by asking questions to improve their understanding

If they seem to be enjoying the book because they are reading for pleasure, do not tick ‘met’. They must regularly ask themselves questions to maintain their positive attitude. Assess this somehow?

  • Maintain positive attitudes to reading by summarising the main ideas drawn from more than one paragraph, identifying key details that support the main ideas

You only get 0-3 marks for this in the SATs so don’t bother with this one.

  • Maintain positive attitudes to reading by drawing inferences such as inferring characters’ feelings, thoughts and motives from their actions and justifying inferences with evidence.

This is a huge part of the SATs test but bizarrely it only counts for 5% of our school data. As long as they have a positive attitude by justifying their answers that’s all that counts. If they don’t have a positive attitude then please do not tick ‘met’.

  • Maintain positive attitudes to reading by recommending books that they have read to their peers, giving reasons for their choices.

If a child doesn’t want to recommend a book with a positive attitude they obviously can’t read. You better put them back on the Read, Write, Inc. program. If children in Year 3 can recommend a book with a smile then feel free to tick the Year 6 objective as ‘met’ in advance.

  • Maintain positive attitudes to reading by participating in discussions about books that are read to them and those they can read for themselves, building on their own and others’ ideas and challenging views courteously.

You must judge a children’s ability to read by how polite they are. Please do not tick ‘met’ if they are reluctant to join in discussions or forget to say thank you. Again, if you think a Year 3 child is polite when discussing a book, please go ahead and tick the Year 6 objective for them in advance.

  • Maintain positive attitudes to reading by explaining what they have read, including through formal presentations and debates, maintaining a focus on the topic and using notes where necessary

Any child who isn’t comfortable delivering presentations must not meet this objective. They must

2017-19 Full blogs are now archived in the book ‘How Do You Think the Lesson Went?’

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