Reading
English
Intent
At Willowbrook Primary School, we believe that the acquisition of the phonetic code, fluency and proficient comprehension as an entitlement for all children has the power to transform lives; it enables them to access the whole curriculum and engage more fully with the world around them. We seek to ignite a passion for reading and love of books through our reading curriculum.
We aim to:
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Promote a love of reading; through a variety of genres and authors, pupils experience a rich diet of literature.
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Link reading texts (where relevant) to non-core learning to help pupils to connect their growing knowledge.
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Teach children to read systematically, starting with the Little Wandle phonics and fluency programmes, to ensure pupils have the foundational knowledge to read for meaning.
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Ensure that explicit teaching of reading skills and strategies to support pupils in accessing all subject areas and understanding the world around them.
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Ensure that pupils are exposed to a range of texts which means they become fluent and accurate in reading across a variety of genres and styles.
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Develop a consistent approach to teaching reading in order to close gaps and ensure that all children leave in year 6 being able to read to learn
Implementation
To ensure high standards of teaching and learning in English, we have implemented a curriculum that is progressive through the school.
Reading
Learning to Read
We follow a systematic approach to teaching phonics, using the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised programme. The teaching of phonics begins in Reception, and teaching continues daily to at least the point where children can read almost all words fluently. This provides children with the skills they need to begin to read words, captions and whole sentences as soon as possible.
Focused Reading Practice
In Reception and Year 1, children practise reading using LW Big Cat decodable books that are closely matched to their developing phonic knowledge. Our children often reread the same text multiple times to develop their comprehension and fluency which includes their accuracy, automaticity (rapid recall of whole known words) and prosody (reading with expression). When the three reading sessions have been taught in school the books will be sent home. The children are expected to read at home and parents are expected to record a comment in the child’s home-link book when they hear their child read.
Support at Home
All children who are accessing decodable books through Little Wandle book scheme, also take home a sharing book. The purpose of this book is to widen the range of book/text type the children are exposed to and encourage book sharing at home; developing a love of reading. These are also the books that might be used as part of our dedicated storytime in EYFS and Year 1.
Support to Keep Up and Catch Up
Until pupils are fluent readers, ‘keep up’ sessions are used for pupils who have been identified in on-going assessment as needing more support in consolidating their phonics knowledge. KS2 pupils who need more support in developing their reading skills receive intervention on an individual or small groups in addition to whole class reading.
Reading for Meaning
Developing Fluency
In EYFS and Yr1, pupils discuss texts and read for meaning as part of their reading practice. In year 2, once they have completed the Little Wandle programme, pupils follow the Little Wandle fluency programme. Towards the end of Year 2, we begin to use a whole class guided reading model to explore more challenging texts.
A Clear Framework for Reading Lessons
KS2 reading lessons are 30mins daily. In whole class reading lessons, pupils read from a reading spine of high-quality fiction, non-fiction and poetry, to explicitly teach and consolidate the skills needed for pupils to be confident readers for meaning.
Each lesson starts with pre-teaching unfamiliar vocabulary, to develop pupils' lexicon to support independent reading. Teachers then explore the texts through different sorts of reading: fluency, extended, close exploration and ‘application’ lessons, which focus on applying reading strategies to different question formats. These are used to develop pupils’ fluency as a bridge to comprehension and ensure that they can engage with and explore a variety of texts a meaningful way.
Teachers use formative assessment through questioning, and through monitoring the quality of pupils’ responses. NFER and SATS papers are used to formally assess pupils' progress in reading.
Love of Reading
A Diet of Quality Texts
The choice of texts in the reading spine is intended to inspire pupils to continue reading class books, and other books by the same author. A range of books is available in class libraries for pupils. Depending on the age and reading ability of the child, these books may also be read in school with an adult. Staff monitor the children’s choice of book to ensure suitability and variety in genre and author.
Daily Story Time and Reading Together
In EYFS, pupils have story times throughout the day. In other year groups. story time happens in every year group to ensure the children are read to every day and share, discuss and enjoy the endless possibilities of books. The choice of text is sometimes shared with pupils and sometimes includes texts studied in reading lessons.
Impact:
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By engaging with high quality texts, children read with enthusiasm and enjoy talking about their reading.
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Pupils can make links and connections between their reading and other subjects, including through their writing.
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Children can read with increasing fluency and accuracy as they progress through school, which supports their comprehension of texts in all subjects. Pupils can read and make sense of a variety of texts – not only evidenced in NFER assessments, but in their readiness for transitions to the next stage of their education.
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We aim for pupils to achieve the age-related expectations for reading, and those that find reading challenging are targeted for intervention to catch up and make progress.
