How we Teach Reading
Intent
Our curriculum intent is encompassed in our School values, ‘Learn, Included, Respect, Enjoy, treated fairly’. We intend that all of our children are exposed to a rich reading diet from the very start of their education with us. We know that future success is linked directly to a broad vocabulary, a love of reading and the ability to communicate effectively. Our reading curriculum aims to fuel children's desire to learn and gives them the tools they need to transform their lives.
We intend that all children, regardless of their starting points in reading, are enabled to achieve their very best which in turn builds confidence and raises aspirations. All adults at our school promote a love of reading, a passion for literature and deliver the affirmations: I choose to read. I read well. I am a reader.
Rich texts are the driving force for our English curriculum. Through reading, pupils have a chance to develop culturally, emotionally, intellectually, socially, spiritually and develop a sense of ‘this is me’. We believe access to a rich and varied library of literature 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, as a child and in adult life leading to aspirational beliefs that everyone wants to contribute to the world and be in charge of fulfilling their own destiny.
Our reading curriculum strives to foster a lifelong love of reading by developing the behaviours that they need to be discerning readers. This curriculum is delivered through synthetic phonics (Ruth Miskin Read, Write Inc programme), a linked approach to shared and whole class reading lessons, home reading, reading across the curriculum, regular opportunities for independent reading and hearing quality texts read aloud every day.
It is our intent that every child should:
read easily, fluently and with good understanding
develop the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information
acquire a wide vocabulary, an understanding of grammar and knowledge of linguistic conventions for reading, writing and spoken language
appreciate our rich and varied literary heritage
use discussion in order to learn; they should be able to elaborate and explain clearly their understanding and ideas (book talk)
are competent in the arts of speaking and listening
At each key stage, a programme of study maps out the rich texts and reading skills that children should be taught.
Whole Class Reading
From Year 1 to Year Six, we follow our reading overviews each half term that link to a curriculum driver. These texts are also displayed in our classroom reading libraries so children can explore them independently before/after whole class reading. These reading lessons are set around a range of quality literature and each half term will typically consist of 2 weeks fiction reading, 2 weeks non-fiction reading and 1-2 weeks poetry.
Features of the lessons include:
Explicit vocabulary teaching
Decodable words
Common exception words
Choral reading
Echo reading
Listening to extracts read fluently by an expert
Text extracts from quality literature
Strong curriculum links
High quality texts and passages are chosen, appropriate to the expectations of the year group or ability of children, the year group’s wider curriculum and teachers use this to model the application of the agreed reading skills. Teachers expertly model ‘thinking as a reader’ and how to develop specific reading skills. The weekly and daily timetable followed by all staff ensures coverage and equal weighting is given to all domains of the reading National Curriculum. Children have the opportunity to re-read the texts studied during our reading sessions.
Further to modelled sessions, children have the opportunity to read texts with greater independence and apply their skills when responding to the wide range of domain questions. More complex questions are evaluated between wider groups and teachers model how to refine answers to a high standard. Children are provided with high quality talk stems/sentence stems to encourage them to extend their ideas and express their responses articulately.
In KS1, the children choose which text/poem they will explore via voting stations. In KS2, these texts/poems are explored through Whole Class Reading which takes places daily.
EYFS follow the Steps to Read approach each half term. Please see their text drivers below.
In Addition, all year groups will read a selection of books linked to the PSHE curriculum via the 'No Outsiders in our School' curriculum. Please see the PSHE tab on our curriculum page for further information on this.
Voting Stations
All children are encouraged to make choices about their reading habits by using our in class voting stations. From EYFS to Year Six, children vote on which book they would like to explore with their teacher and class at the end of the day.
We also hold a weekly reading assembly where children vote for the text that will be shared. Volunteers then help perform the book to the whole school with the help of our story spoons that were lovingly created for World Book Day 2022.
EYFS Reading Learning Journey
Children in EYFS will have daily lessons following the Literacy Counts Steps to Read sequenced planning. These lessons are set around a range of quality literature and each half term will typically consist of between twenty to twenty-five lessons. In addition, children have daily Storytime where they are encouraged to make their own reading choices by voting for their daily text.
Files to Download
