4. Secondary school trusts: about training and support

4. Secondary school trusts: about training and support

Consistent, high quality training and support for secondary trusts 

We work with over 90 trusts in England to provide a high quality, consistent approach to the teaching and leadership of reading. 

This includes established trusts such as Ark, DRET, Westcountry and Hope Sentamu Learning Trust and newly formed trusts of four or more schools.

We keep track of reading progress- and work with the trust team to act on the data – for long-term success in every school. 

Even the most struggling readers succeed with Fresh Start 

Fresh Start is a systematic synthetic phonics programme for struggling readers aged 9-13+. Pupils are taught at their challenge point, so they learn to read accurately and fluently in just 25 minutes a day. 

Fresh Start is for students who:

• are not yet reading age appropriately 
• have missed schooling or are late arrivals into school 
• are new to the UK education system
• are learning English as an additional language. 

What we provide for secondary trusts 

Half-termly remote progress meetings with RMT trust trainer, director and trust reading leaders to:

• analyse reading data for all schools in the trust 
• agree actions that will have the biggest impact on progress.

"School leaders understood the need to identify specific reading gaps and weaknesses and made sure that the staff working with struggling readers were trained to teach reading."

‘Now the school is reading’: supporting struggling readers in secondary school.

Ofsted guidance, 2022

For each new secondary school:
• two in-school training days
• up to three in-school development days 
• access to the Fresh Start online subscription including the virtual classroom. 

Note: key staff from each of the trust secondary schools are trained together in one venue. 

For new school reading leaders: 
• a one-hour remote Introduction to Fresh Start training 
• a one-hour remote Assessment training.

For renewal schools: 
• access to the Fresh Start online subscription- including the virtual classroom 
• an in-school development day. 

Consistent, high quality training and support for secondary trusts 

We work with over 90 trusts in England to provide a high quality, consistent approach to the teaching and leadership of reading. 

This includes established trusts such as Ark, DRET, Westcountry and Hope Sentamu Learning Trust and newly formed trusts of four or more schools.

We keep track of reading progress- and work with the trust team to act on the data – for long-term success in every school. 

Even the most struggling readers succeed with Fresh Start 

Fresh Start is a systematic synthetic phonics programme for struggling readers aged 9-13+. Pupils are taught at their challenge point, so they learn to read accurately and fluently in just 25 minutes a day. 

Fresh Start is for students who:

• are not yet reading age appropriately 
• have missed schooling or are late arrivals into school 
• are new to the UK education system
• are learning English as an additional language. 

What we provide for secondary trusts 

Half-termly remote progress meetings with RMT trust trainer, director and trust reading leaders to:

• analyse reading data for all schools in the trust 
• agree actions that will have the biggest impact on progress.

"School leaders understood the need to identify specific reading gaps and weaknesses and made sure that the staff working with struggling readers were trained to teach reading."

‘Now the school is reading’: supporting struggling readers in secondary school.

Ofsted guidance, 2022

For each new secondary school:
• two in-school training days
• up to three in-school development days 
• access to the Fresh Start online subscription including the virtual classroom. 

Note: key staff from each of the trust secondary schools are trained together in one venue. 

For new school reading leaders: 
• a one-hour remote Introduction to Fresh Start training 
• a one-hour remote Assessment training.

For renewal schools: 
• access to the Fresh Start online subscription- including the virtual classroom 
• an in-school development day. 

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