English
Reading
English has a pre-eminent place in education and in society. A high-quality education in English will teach pupils to speak and write fluently so that they can communicate their ideas and emotions to others, and through their reading and listening, others can communicate with them. Through reading in particular, pupils have a chance to develop culturally, emotionally, intellectually, socially and spiritually. Literature, especially, plays a key role in such development. Reading also enables pupils both to acquire knowledge and to build on what they already know. All the skills of language are essential to participating fully as a member of society; pupils who do not learn to speak, read and write fluently and confidently are effectively disenfranchised. (National Curriculum 2014)
Intent
At Scotton Lingerfield, we believe that the teaching of reading is integral to a child’s understanding and appreciation of the world around them; a platform that allows our children to see beyond what they know, share in cultural experiences and develop the vocabulary they need to effectively express themselves.
Our Reading curriculum is delivered through synthetic phonics, a linked approach to shared and guided reading, home reading, reading across the curriculum, regular opportunities for independent reading and hearing quality texts read aloud every day. All of these are essential components as they offer the range of opportunities needed to develop fluent, enthusiastic and critical readers.
Reading for pleasure is beneficial not only for reading outcomes, but for wider learning enjoyment and mental wellbeing. Thus, we work hard to foster a love of independent reading and build communities of engaged readers. We understand the significance of parents and carers in supporting their children to develop both word reading and comprehension skills so we endeavour to build a home-school partnership which enables parents and carers to have the confidence to support their children with reading at home.
Reading is at the very heart of our curriculum. We are committed to promoting a love for reading and not only giving children opportunities to read in English lessons, but in the wider curriculum too.
We aim for all our children to:
- Read fluently, confidently and with good understanding
- Develop the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and purpose
- Acquire a wide vocabulary for reading, writing and spoken language
- Use discussions to learn; they should be able to elaborate and clearly explain their understanding and ideas
- Make good progress in their reading during their time at school and are appropriately supported to achieve at age related expectations
In Reading, by the end of EYFS children will:
Children will enjoy looking at books and listening to stories. They will use their phonics knowledge to decode regular words and will be able to read phase 2,3 and 4 tricky words. Children will read and understand simple sentences and will be able to make basic predictions about a text. They will demonstrate understanding when talking to others about what they have read.
In Reading, by the end of Key Stage 1 children will:
Be successful, fluent readers, reading aloud and independently. They understand that they use their phonics knowledge as the first tool when tackling new words in reading. They will have read and been exposed to a range of high-quality fiction, poetry, plays and non-fiction texts. Children will be able to confidently discuss texts and ask relevant questions about what they have read.
In Reading by the end of Key Stage 2 children will:
Leave Year 6 as competent, confident life-long readers, who can recommend books to their peers, have a thirst for reading a wide range of high-quality texts across the genres, participate in discussions about books and have an established love of reading for life.
Implementation
- Our curriculum is built around the use of quality texts that widen our children’s knowledge and understanding of the world through presenting new ideas, challenging stereotypes, expressing different views and presenting ethical viewpoints.
- Little Wandle phonics is the vehicle that we use to teach early reading skills. The systematic teaching of phonics has a high priority throughout Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1. All children in Reception, Year 1 and where necessary, in Year 2 and KS2 have daily phonics sessions.
- In years 2-6, we teach reading skills through Whole Class Guided Reading lessons. Comprehension skills are the focus of lessons at this stage, as most children can read with fluency and expression. The children work on the VIPERS skills of vocabulary, inference, prediction, explaining, retrieval and summarising (KS2) or sequencing (KS1).
- Children take part in discussions allowing these skills are developed through questioning, debate and justification of ideas and opinions. Children also can answer written questions, pose questions and write book reviews, so that they also develop their reasoning and communication skills in written form.
- Shared reading also takes place across the curriculum lessons, which gives children a solid purpose for reading.
- Each year group has prescribed texts that ensure children benefit from listening to a variety of texts being read every day. Teachers are also free to include class favourites or new authors to supplement the main text and expand children’s knowledge.
- Quality texts are also used to enhance topic and science units, as this gives the children a rich and varied reading experience.
- Children are read to each day by their class teacher. This can be a book that the teacher recommends to the class or a recommendation from a child.
- Children can take part in ‘Reading Buddies’, in which children mix with other children from different year groups and share a book together.
- Reading at home is encouraged and promoted through class incentives and parental engagement sessions.
- We have a wide range of reading books in every classroom. All children are free to choose a reading book to take home from the class library each week as well as their levelled reading book, which is changed when needed.
Guided Reading lessons
EYFS
- Three adult led reading sessions a week (decoding, prosody and comprehension)
- Read the same text in all three sessions
- Books allocated online to read at home
- The third comprehension lesson oral comprehension
Year 1
- Three adult led reading sessions a week (decoding, prosody and comprehension)
- Read the same text in all three sessions
- Books allocated online to read at home
- The third comprehension lesson are written answers, using VIPERS
- Children join in in whole class reading (listening to the class novel and join in with discussions following VIPERS; prediction and sequence) for 2 sessions a week
Year 2-6
- Three adult lead reading sessions a week
- Different texts are read during each session
- Comprehensions vary from oral and written responses using VIPERS
- Children join in in whole class reading (listening to the class novel and join in with discussions following VIPERS; prediction and sequence) for 2 sessions a week
- Children swap home reading books as and when from the free choice boxes based on their current reading level
- Reading interventions are held to meet children’s needs
Impact
We encourage children to have a thirst for reading a range of genres, not only for pleasure but to also read books to enhance their knowledge and understanding of all subjects on the curriculum and communicate their research to a wider audience.
By the time children leave our school they will:
- Make good progress from their KS1 results
- Have a love for reading
- Read fluently and with expression across a wide range of genres and for different purposes.
- Have a good wide knowledge of quality texts and a deep-rooted pleasure in reading
- Discuss what they have read and make critical judgements about their reading
Assessment and monitoring
In EYFS and Year 1, children are assessed every 6 weeks. These assessments in phonics inform children’s reading level. In Years 2-6, each term ends with assessment of fluency and comprehension which is used to inform planning, where gaps are quickly identified.
The subject leader monitors the subject through:
- Learning walks
- Work Scrutiny
- Data/assessment scrutiny
Pupil voice
