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Visiting a Pathways Flagship School
Here is a short reflection of a wonderful morning in one of our flagship schools.
As soon as you enter St Basil’s, you feel welcome: it’s warm, inviting, walls are adorned with cross-curricular work and the pupils are kind and polite.
Headteacher Angela Sheppard talks passionately about English and her love of books: she strives for every child in her school to be a competent reader to support their well-being and access to the curriculum, and to improve their life chances. Everywhere you look in St Basil’s there are books – beautifully displayed on shelves in cloak rooms, in small, neat piles on pupil desks and class sets shared out for reading lessons. Pupils are encouraged to read, read, read.
Last year, 83% of pupils reached the expected standard in reading with 21% reaching greater depth. This hasn’t come easily and the teachers have worked tirelessly to create a reading curriculum and timetable to support all their pupils. Currently, the school delivers daily Pathways to Read sessions for the whole class; afternoon targeted grouped reading sessions following the Pathways to Read structure; fluency practise for pupils needing further support; and catch-up phonics. The school’s ISDR tells them they are above national average for disadvantaged pupils on a 3-year average. Angela was happy to offer advice to the people who attended and one key takeaway was ‘things take time’ and these 3-year averages are a testament to that. Embed practice over time and the results speak for themselves.
On a learning walk around the school, we observed all pupils engaged in reading lessons and it made a huge difference that pupils either had their own book or a book to share with a partner. Pupil discussion was high on the agenda and pupils responded eagerly to their partner to share thoughts on the questions they were asked. The school prioritises reading regularly, fluency practice and high-quality discussion over evidencing written answers (although some reading tasks are recorded where appropriate).
Both English subject leaders, Kathryn and Michelle, talked passionately about their subject and they lead it incredibly well through modelling best practice, coaching and pupil progress meetings. Michelle, who is writing lead, described how this year’s focus has been on adaptive teaching and foundational skills to ensure all pupils can write sentences accurately.
Adaptive teaching was observed first hand on the learning walk focussed on Pathways to Write – quality first teaching to the whole class with adapted outcomes for targeted pupils.
Some of the adaptations seen include line spacing to support with speech sandwich writing in Y4, sentence stems to support accurate sentence writing in Y1 and widgets to help with vocabulary and tenses in Y3.
Effective modelled writing was seen in many classes – on flip chart paper (which had handwriting lines printed on) displayed for further reference.
Handwriting has been a high priority over previous years and the fruits of their labour are now showing – year 5 and year 6 handwriting is stunning, with earlier year groups working diligently on letter formation and developing a fluent, joined style.
Kathryn explained that now all the TAs in schools were working 1:1 with pupils so they could no longer deliver Pathways to Progress as an intervention outside of Literacy lessons. Instead, teachers are using it to teach grammar essentials at the start of units or as a lesson starter, and as the resources match the texts they use, it was working brilliantly for them.
After the learning walks, the guests chatted to pupils who proudly shared their reading and writing books. Articulate and passionate about their learning, these pupils were a pleasure to talk to.
The whole morning was incredibly inspiring. One of the key messages Angela shared with us was that you have to work together as a team – for the staff to be on the same page as the head with similar beliefs and motivation. The consistency across the school is clear to see. Angela also described her partnership with The Literacy Company: she trusts the consultant support, messages delivered and Pathways resources. The partnership for us is highly valued. It is a privilege for us to see how with a unified team and a consistent set of resources, you can have such life-changing impact on your pupils.
Angela proudly shared with us a letter she had received from Bridget Philipson congratulating them on their school’s performance in 2024/25 outcomes explaining that it places St Basil’s among the very best of schools nationally, and that this is a significant achievement. A truly outstanding achievement.
St Basil’s three-year data:
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