Business Case Template
| The Business Case | |
| Background | The KS2 reading score for the 2017-2018 cohort was 80%, which is above the national average but 10% below the year’s before cohort. Our higher standard score came out at 10% which is 18% below the national average. As a result, the aim of this project is to increase marginally the number of KS2 pupils, who meet the expected standard in Reading, but also increase the amount of greater depth readers. Having analysed data from the SATS and the actual papers themselves, it is evident that our children lost a lot of marks in the comprehension section due to a lack of inference and analytical skills. Therefore, this whole school project needs to improve the quality of guided reading teaching and form a more consistent approach across the school. It also needs to ensure that children are making more progress when it comes to understanding text and answering questions associated with inference and interpretation. |
| Strategic goals | Create a more routine and easy to follow procedure for Guided Reading at Baines. Staff to include greater depth questioning in sessions and to move away from the round robin process of Guided Reading. Pupils should progress more in reading and be able to give more in depth and analytical answers. |
| Strategic fit | By implementing the project correctly staff will feel more confident about taking Guided Reading sessions and will be able to focus on the areas of questioning children have struggled with. |
| Interdependencies | The Headteacher: will deliver a training session for Guided Reading as she is currently leading English. She will have the final say on proposals, oversee the project from a distance and help arrange any cover needed for observations. Teachers will be required to attend training, observe good practice and make changes to their own procedures during Guided Reading Sessions. They will have to give teaching assistants enough time from their class to prepare for Guided Reading Sessions.
The teaching assistants will have to carry out Guided Reading using the same standardised procedure as well as using the higher level of questioning in their delivery. The children should notice a degree of change in their Guided Reading sessions. How they are listened to and prompted to derive information from the text. They should be learning new skills to help them develop understanding and extricate key themes in the text. Pupils may change groups more often due to the greater emphasis on these skills. |
| Options appraisal | Do nothing. All staff to continue teaching in a non-cohesive way and children don’t progress when it comes to improving comprehension techniques. Ask staff to teach guided reading as a whole class session rather than in groups. This will mean that Guided Reading would be taught in larger groups increasing the contact ratio which lessens performance.
Ask staff to develop comprehension skills only in the teaching of their English lesson. This would again prove less effective due to teaching the techniques to a larger audience. There could be the chance of more reading sessions delivered in school but this would be at the detriment to other areas of the curriculum as well as present staffing issues. Employ the carousel method in each classroom. This would prove counter-productive as children could not be streamed as easily. Also a large proportion of their weekly learning time would be spent doing ‘holding’ tasks. Use TAs to target children who are border line expected and greater depth with their reading. Although this may have success it would mean extra cost to the school which already employs a high number of TAs for intervention groups. The school could look at buying an alternative reading scheme that places a greater emphasis on comprehension skills. The cost may make this option a non-starter though. Staff could be trained to follow a set procedure and to include specific types of questioning in their guided reading sessions. They would need time just before their sessions to plan and evaluate using paperwork afterwards. |
| Selected option
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The selected option is to train staff on a set procedure using specific types of questioning. This has been chosen as it is cost effective; it allows an easy monitoring process as well as staff to share good practice. It can also be rolled out across the school ensuring that each year group is following a more rigid approach. |
| Project objectives | To improve the amount of children gaining expected in Reading. To improve the amount of children gaining Greater Depth in Reading. To improve the confidence of children when answering questions and feeding back about a text. |
| Risk analysis
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Please see Risk Management Plan. |
| Cost/benefit analysis
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The training will be able to be provided by staff already at the school, keeping the cost down. The school already have most of the resources needed after purchasing Purple Mash. Additional texts may be bought and children will be encouraged to bring in their own. Benefits should be apparent when staff are practising similar methods and children are starting to show improved comprehension scores by the end of Summer term. |
| Project financing
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There are no cost implications to the training as it will be done in house. Salford reading comprehension test £20 for assessment purposes. Purple Mash is £500 + vat a year, although this platform is already being used in school for other purposes. |
| Project planning
Deliverables and timescales Planning assumptions |
Autumn term to observe guided reading already done. Approach staff about their ideas. Analyse current data. Spring term to roll out training, introduce the Salford comprehension test. Summer to gain staff feedback and observe. First half of Autumn term to analyse end data and create action plan going forward.
Assumptions made are that all staff will follow the programme. Cover made available in order to observe sessions. Governors will support the project. |
