RILLINGTON Primary School

Reading:

Reading is at the heart of our curriculum as a result we are determined that every pupil will learn to read, regardless of their background, needs or abilities. All pupils, including the weakest readers, will make sufficient progress to meet or exceed age-related expectations.

The intention is: 

• To promote a love of reading , through teacher knowledge of high quality texts used across the curriculum. 
• For children to obtain a word reading knowledge alongside comprehension skills in order to navigate texts and deepen their understanding of the world.
• To ensure that every child learns to read to a high standard of fluency and understanding, regardless of their background, needs or prior attainment. 
• Close the ‘word gap’ by expanding pupils' vocabulary, deepening their understanding of the texts they are reading and widening their use of spoken language.    

Our approach to reading in EYFS:

In EYFS we use an approach to reading called Talk through stories. This approach ensures that first and foremost children fall in love with the story being told,  and when they know it well, we teach them to use the ‘Tier Two’ words from the story in everyday contexts. (Tier Two words are words that children are unlikely to hear in everyday conversation, but will encounter in stories and teaching as they progress through school.).

Plan every day:

20 minutes for Storytime
10 minutes for Vocabulary time (at a different time to Storytime)

Our approach to whole class reading: 

Reading is implemented across the curriculum.  Children read every day, they are exposed to a range of genres and authors both 'Old and Gold' and 'New and Bold'. They read individually, in pairs and in small groups as part of a whole class session as well as across the wider curriculum.

Our Whole-class reading approach:

This is taught on a daily basis from Year 2-6.

It provides a clear structure and sequence, allowing our children to frequently access all reading domains – Vocabulary, Inference, Prediction, Explanation, Retrieval and Summarising/Sequencing.

Our whole class reading lesson structure is:

Teachers encourage reading for pleasure by:

• Reading aloud to children daily.
• Providing time and space for children and teachers to share their recommendations and opinions.
• Working with our local library/visiting the pop up library
• Encouraging reading at home. 
• Developing children’s rich and diverse ‘reading diet’ and knowledge of literature, through expert teacher knowledge of quality texts .
• Children are given the opportunity to personally respond to texts, debating and developing links to other texts, authors and prior knowledge as they move through school. 
• Through the use of Reading Corners  

Application of phonics to reading:

We support the children’s application of phonics to their reading by using phonetically decodable reading books both in school and at home. 

In school reading practice sessions:
Children are given regular opportunities to apply the phonics they have learned to reading fully decodable books. The phonic progression in these books matches the progression of Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised and the sounds know by individual children.
We undertake three reading practice sessions each week. Each session has a clear focus, so that the demands of the session do not overload the children’s working memory.
The reading practice sessions have been designed to focus on three key reading skills:
• decoding
• prosody – reading with meaning, stress and intonation
• comprehension – understanding the text.

Children then take these books home, these are books for children to read to parents.

Children who are just beginning to learn the letter/sound correspondences are learning at the same time to tell stories using books which do not have words to begin with.  This is crucial in the development of spoken language and vocabulary. It is a necessary stepping stone towards becoming an accomplished reader and writer.

Wider literature:

Once children are able to read with fluency and apply their knowledge of all the letter/sound patterns taught then the children read a wider range of literature. 

We also enable parents to choose a book with their child from our lending library, these are sharing books.

In order to encourage children to become a lifelong reader, it is important that they learn to read for pleasure. The sharing book is a book they have chosen for you to enjoy together.

Please remember that parents shouldn’t expect children to read this alone. Read it to or with them. Discuss the pictures, enjoy the story, predict what might happen next, use different voices for the characters, explore the facts in a non-fiction book. The main thing is that you have fun!

The impact of our approach to Reading is that children are excited to read and frequently recommend and talk about their favourite authors and texts. Our reading outcomes are improving as our approach becomes embedded.

Reading subject newsletter: