Tutor time reading has experienced a wave of popularity in English secondary schools over the last few years. As schools responded to plummeting reading habits, along with a focus on reading in inspection and across curriculum, it became a popular fix for promoting and practising more reading during the school day. 

In terms of implementation, I’ve mostly worked with, or observed, schools undertaking tutor time reading two or three times a week. In some cases, a brilliant store of new books was invested in to promote the new strategy, along with new resources being produced to communicate and promote reading.

But a couple of years on, I now speak to lots of literacy leaders who are strained in their attempts to sustain form time reading. In some cases, there is an honesty that admits that tutor time reading is in need of life support.

When reading goes wrong: failed implementation

Why is the implementation so variable and in need of reviving in so many cases?

The common issues I observe include some of the following:

  • Teachers are unclear of the value of why they are doing form time reading. Teachers understand how reading fiction texts may be interesting, but not useful for their science curriculum, so their ‘buy in’ is pretty weak.
  • Teachers are too busy and so the time gets pushed out by other priorities.
  • Some teachers lack confidence in reading aloud, or don’t know the texts very well, so they cannot promote them with the understanding, or be nimble responses to questions, that are needed. 
  • Teachers, and students, get pulled into interventions or other events, so the management and timing of form time reading can easily be knocked off.
  • Poor behaviour and student resistance to reading.
  • Form time reading gets off to a good start, but form tutors change roles, leave, or new teachers (or cover) don’t get the same launch experience, or training, and so year 2 sees a steep decline.

Implementation of any whole approach is difficult and sustaining it across terms, and particularly school years, is doubly hard. It is no surprise, despite schools investing in stacks of lovely book stock, that they don’t get read and used with the same shiny excitement. 

5 strategies to revive tutor time reading

In most cases, it is worthwhile attempting to revive tutor time reading (although in some cases it would be the brave and right thing to stop it completely to do other things). Like most attempts at implementation, it requires time, effort, and there is an ‘opportunity cost’ that comes with such effort.

I’ve worked with a range of schools and literacy leads looking to make the effort to improve upon their literacy strategy. Here are 5 strategies that may have revive flagging form time efforts:

  1. Audit existing approaches and respond to the feedback with changes. School leaders are so busy, there is often too little time to monitor and evaluate how things are going (which is why fewer school priorities is often key). An honest audit, with a sample of students and form tutors contributing, is likely a necessity to work out how to improve upon the existing approach.
  2. Make intelligent adaptations to approach. Are the text choices working? Is there enough time to do the reading? Is Wednesday a nightmare for year 8 form classes? Do some pupils need targeted support resources? It is rare that a literacy strategy doesn’t require tweaks or even wholesale changes. A literacy lead should determine what is likely the most effective approach to implementing reading once more, and adapt and clarify the new model based on feedback to targeted evaluation.
  3. Overcommunicate the ‘why’, ‘what’ and ‘how’. Teachers are incredibly busy. In reality, form time is rarely at the top of the priority list. As a result, literacy leads need to overcommunicate the ‘why’ of additional reading. They can use compelling personal stories and refer to robust evidence. Not only that, but leaders also need to overcommunicate the ‘what’ and ‘how’ of every practical element of the sessions. 
  4. Offer training and targeted support for teachers. Many literacy leads (often with a background in English or Drama) don’t anticipate all the issues for teachers trying to read aloud. They may need training in how to read aloud, or how to respond to questions that keep up the ‘flow’ of reading. I have worked with leaders who have had to support teachers who struggle to read due to being dyslexic, or don't know what to do when high need students appear locked out of the experience. In short, some targeted support is likely to be needed.
  5. Routinely celebrate success. It is easy to move onto the next thing and assume everything is going fine after a bit of a September revival and training. The reality is going to be patchy progress. Aim to sustain interest and focus that can drive improvement to the process. Celebrate with students, parents, and especially staff. For instance, tell the stories of students having their understanding unlocked, and its connection to school success and home reading.

It all feels like a lot of effort for 40, 50 or 60 minutes of extra reading a week. That is because it is!

For the opportunity to be worth the cost, it needs to be clear that the effort leads to some positive impact. Implemented well, form time reading could nudge a reading culture, or see individual students be successful with reading beyond what they thought possible. But getting there is likely to be hard and in need of a revival effort for many schools.

Related reading: 

  • There is a powerful Greenshaw Research School blog series HERE on how they implement form time reading.  

*** TRAINING OPPORTUNITY ***

Is everyone at your school clear about what transformative talk should look like and sound like? Can every teacher exploit the power of talking about what you read in class? My new Teachology Masterclass on 'Transformative Talk: Unlocking Classroom Communication', explores manageable classroom routines that impact learning. Teachers, middle leaders, literacy leads, and school & college leads are all welcome. It is live and in person in Birmingham on the 4th July. FIND OUT MORE HERE.