Reading

Reading Curriculum Statement

Intent

Findern Primary puts reading at the heart of the curriculum. We believe that reading is a key tool for life. Our aim is to deliver a curriculum that enables our children to be ready for the next stage of their education at the end of each phase and to be ‘secondary ready’ when they finally leave us at age 11. Our aim is to teach children to become confident and competent readers by learning how to word read and by developing comprehension skills which they can apply across the curriculum, as well as developing a life-long love of reading for pleasure. Parents are actively encouraged to be involved in their child’s reading journey throughout their time at school.

Our aim is for all children to reach their full potential in reading. There are a wide range of opportunities for children that have a specific learning difficulty in reading. 

Implementation

Early reading is prioritised in EYFS and KS1. It is underpinned by a coherent and systematic phonics scheme taught daily.

In EYFS, phonics is taught through daily phonics lessons which are short and pacey using the Twinkl Scheme approach that supports the learning of the phonemes and corresponding graphemes. The children then apply their learning in a meaningful context through a range of carefully planned activities that are matched to their interests and abilities. In addition to this, the children are exposed to a wide range of quality texts that are readily accessible in the learning environment. They enjoy shared reading with an adult and use a range of books, Bug Club and Twinkl Books to begin guided reading sessions. Children are given a school reading book once they have begun Phase 2 which is matched to the sounds they are learning in class. The Floppy Phonics scheme is used alongside other reading schemes such as Oxford Reading to develop sentence reading and fluency once they are confident within Phase 2. The children will be able to apply their phonic knowledge and their growing understanding of the layout and features of written texts, as well as starting to develop basic skills in deduction and inference. In EYFS children are also introduced to tricky and high frequency words through the phonics scheme and are taught to read and write these words. By the end of EYFS, children are expected to have completed Phase 4.

Key Stage One

By the end of Year One, the expectation is for children to be secure in Phase 5. In Year One, the children complete the National Phonics Screening Check – a statutory assessment that was introduced in 2012 for all Year 1 pupils. It comprises a list of 40 real words and nonsense words that assess phonics skills and knowledge learnt through EYFS and year 1. The check is very similar to tasks that the children already complete during phonics lesson. Year 2 continue the teaching of phonics at Phase 6 in the same way as EYFS and year 1. In year 1 and year 2 guided reading is completed either within small groups or as a whole class read. In small group sessions the texts used are closely linked to the phonic stage that the children are working in and the sessions also develop their ability to discuss and analyse a text, using skills such as prediction and developing a growing vocabulary. For whole class reading texts are often of a high reading ability which the class teacher will read and then engage the children with key questions. These texts often link to the topics throughout the year and provide the opportunity to widen vocabulary.

Children who are unable to achieve the phonics expected standard at the end of Year 2 will proceed to reading intervention support in Year 3. Phonics is continued in KS2 for those who need it, including application practise with decodable reading books. Reading interventions such as additional daily phonics, reading practise with an adult or an intervention reading scheme such as Dandelion Readers or Project X are used.

Key Stage Two

As children progress in to Key Stage 2, they revise and consolidate the phonics learnt so far. They also continue with guided reading sessions with the aim of exposing children to a range of texts that are linked to their reading ability but also provide a greater element of challenge and to further develop their comprehension skills in line with the expectations of the National Curriculum. Small group guided reading sessions are planned and also whole class reading. Children continue to have an individual reading book, moving on to free readers when it is assessed as appropriate. In addition, the children share high quality class texts through which the full range of English reading and writing skills are taught, as well as opportunities for reading across the curriculum.

Reading for pleasure is modelled by all adults across the school and children throughout the school are able to read books in designated reading spaces. EYFS and Year 1 use the reading tent to share whole class stories and also reading intervention sessions. We are passionate about reading and within classes often run reading challenges to promote home reading. Staff share online stories each week in EYFS via Tapestry so children can have a bedtime story read to them. When children start with us in EYFS parents are invited to join us for Phonics Meetings so they are able to support with their child’s reading during. Parents are also invited for a Phonics Screening meeting to help them understand the assessment process at the end of Year 1. Home reading is encouraged through the use of home reading books and also the online system Bug Club.

Impact

Impact is measured in EYFS and KS1 through end of Phase phonics assessments which assess the sounds the children know as well as the reading of tricky words. These are completed at the end of each Phase and used to form intervention groups. In Year 2 reading comprehensions are used as an assessment tool during each term and the results added to the whole school Reading Tracker. 

Across the school the Salford Reading assessment is used to give the children a reading age and to add to the overall reading ability of children. In KS2 the impact is measured through the use of formative assessments throughout the year. These assessments are used to inform home reading books as well as guided reading sessions. The whole school reading tracker is used to record the progress that pupils are making in terms of knowing more, remembering more and being able to do more at the end of each academic year. This will record whether the children are working towards the age-related expectations, at the age-related expectations or exceeding the age-related expectations. These judgements will be quality assured by subject leaders using first-hand evidence of how pupils are doing, drawing together evidence from pupil interviews, observations of tasks, reading tasks, work scrutinise and discussions with pupils about what they remembered about the content they have studied.