Bristol primary schools honoured for helping kids to read

By The Editor
Jun 25, 2010

Two Bristol primary schools have won national awards for the way they teach children to read.

Filton Avenue Infants and Waycroft Primary School were two of only 32 out of 19,000 primary schools in the country selected for the award.

The awards were presented in London this week, by the Every Child A Chance Trust charity, which is backed by the government and leading businesses and charities.

The awards recognise schools with an outstanding record in working with children who struggle to read and need intensive one-to-one support.

Filton Avenue Infants School is recognised as a model of good practice for its work to boost reading and was one of the first two schools to gain the Bristol Every Child a Reader standard last year.

Headteacher Anne Rutherford said: “Ensuring all our children leave school with good reading skills and a love of books is central to our work. Our approach really has paid off – in 2008, 98.6% of our children achieved the level expected for their age in reading and 100% of our children achieved the level expected for their age in writing.”

Waycroft Primary School has been involved in ‘reading recovery’ work for over 10 years. It has been nominated for its success in helping children who have received additional support carry on achieving well in
the long term. In 2008, all Year 6 children achieved the level expected for their age in English, maths and science. Headteacher Stella Sage said it was “an honour” to be nominated.