Nightingale Primary School

Woolwich, London, England

2026 Read Live School of the Year Runner-up

Submitted by Sonia Skunder, Reading Specialist

Nightingale Primary School receives a $500 Read Naturally Gift Certificate.

Educators at Nightingale Primary School believe reading is the foundation for success. They are committed to using effective strategies to build students’ fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension skills, and they have used Read Live for many years to support that work—with clear results.

Headteacher Omar Jennings explains that students love taking ownership of their learning and are feeling the impact of their efforts. One parent shares of her daughter, “She has told me that she enjoys using the program and loves seeing the progress each lesson. It has been great to see her overall attitude towards reading become more positive.”

Thanks to visible progress in students’ reading ability, confidence, and SATS scores, Jennings says Nightingale staff  “feel confident sending their students off to the next part of their learning journey knowing that they are ready.” Nightingale Primary School is a model of excellence in literacy instruction and a very deserving awardee of the Read Live School of the Year scholarship.

Check out their full nomination below including their video submission and their story.

At Nightingale Primary School we believe that reading is the foundation to success. Our core principles include Repeated Reading; An instructional strategy in which pupils read the same text multiple times increases fluency, comprehension, and vocabulary retention. This method also boosts confidence and self-esteem as pupils grow more adept at transferring their learning across texts.

Close Reading; A systematic approach to breaking down complex passages, asking text-dependent questions, and encouraging mastery through writing. Both repeated and close reading form the foundation of our reading instruction at Nightingale. Fluency; Fluency is key to reading success. We use Repeated Reading techniques to ensure pupils develop automaticity—reading quickly and accurately. This leads to improved comprehension and a smoother transition between texts. These principles go hand in hand with all of the strategies used by Read Live. Our pupils love taking part in our specialised Read Live interventions. One of our pupils stated “I like that it helps me answer questions because it prepares me for my SAT'S reading test and helps me read way faster. The best part of read live is the blue words because it helps me understand words better." The parents are equally pleased and are really noticing the impact we are making. “As a parent of an 11 year old in year 6, I have seen improvement in my child's reading since starting Read Live. Her fluency has improved and she reads with much more confidence. She has told me that she enjoys using the program and loves seeing the progress each lesson. It has been great to see her overall attitude towards reading become more positive.” - Mo

As a key member of staff, who runs multiple sessions a day, one of my favourite aspects of Read Live is that I have the ability to generate tables to show children's progress. I am easily able to select stories that they have completed to see exactly how much impact I am making.

We are one of the few schools outside of America that use Read Live. We have seen tremendous results for our children. We find that the results are evident in the Year 6 SATS (End of primary school assessments). We are confident sending our pupils off to the next part of their learning journey knowing that they are ready. At Nightingale, Read Live isn't only a learning programme, its empowerment for the future.