Reading

BORROW WOOD PRIMARY SCHOOL

Intent, Implementation and Impact Statement for Reading

Intent

Reading is not only one of the key skills that children will need to help them gain knowledge across the curriculum, but also a key skill that they will need for the next stage of their education and in their everyday lives as adults. Therefore, reading at Borrow Wood is a core skill that underpins our whole curriculum.

Our aim is all that all our children will be motivated and confident readers who read with accuracy and fluency whilst having a strong understanding of what they are reading. Alongside structured learning opportunities in daily reading lessons, we will provide pupils with regular opportunities to build, consolidate and apply their reading skills across other subjects in the curriculum too.

We will use high quality texts to inspire and engage our children to master key reading skills and develop a wide vocabulary.

Finally, through the reading curriculum, we will support children in developing curious minds, an appreciation of our rich and varied literary heritage and a life-long love of reading.

Implementation

In EYFS we use Development Matters and the Foundation Stage Profile alongside ‘Little Wandle’ to teach early reading skills. In Key Stage 1 and 2 we follow the National Curriculum to provide broad and balanced opportunities for children to develop their reading skills, knowledge and understanding.

Early Reading - Phonics

Foundations for Phonics in Nursery

We provide a balance of child-led and adult-led experiences for all children that meet the curriculum expectations for ‘Communication and Language’ and ‘Literacy’. These include:

Sharing high-quality stories and poems
Learning a range of nursery rhymes and action rhymes
Activities that develop focused listening and attention, including oral blending
Attention to high-quality language

We ensure Nursery children are well prepared to begin learning grapheme-phoneme correspondences (GPCs) and blending ready for Reception.

Daily phonics lessons in Reception and Year 1

Phonics is taught daily using the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised expectations of progress.

Keep up sessions are provided for children, who need additional practice. These sessions match the structure of class teaching, and use the same procedures, resources and mantras, but in smaller steps with more repetition, so that every child secures their learning. Opportunities are provided throughout the day for children to apply their phonics learning across other curriculum areas.

Children beyond Year 1, who have not met the age related expectations in reading, receive daily phonics teaching based on gaps identified through assessment.

Little Wandle - Practice Reading

We teach children to read through reading practice sessions three times a week. This follows the ‘Little Wandle’ recommended teaching sequence. These sessions are taught to small groups of approximately six children; use books matched to the children’s secure phonic knowledge and are monitored by the class teacher.

Each reading practice 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: teaching children to read with understanding and expression
Comprehension: teaching children to understand the text.

In Years 2 and Key Stage 2 we continue to teach reading in this way for any children, who still need to practise reading with decodable books.

The decodable reading book is taken home for additional practice. Parents and carers can revisit books via the Harper Collins e-books portal.

Reciprocal Reading

Initially in Year 2 children build fluency through guided reading sessions and then move onto Reciprocal Reading to ensure that comprehension is developed alongside fluency. Additional practice reading sessions are planned dependent on need.

Reading is taught daily for 30 minutes from Year 2 to Year 6. Reciprocal Reading is used as the main strategy to develop comprehension skills. The Reciprocal Reading approach promotes high quality discussion and engagement with texts, encouraging pupils to develop the skills that effective readers and learners do automatically: summarise, question, clarify, predict and respond to what they are reading.

To improve fluency echo reading is used to develop expressive fluent reading with the adult or confident reader reading a short segment of text and children echoing it back.

The Reciprocal Reading Sequence

Discussion about the text, clarification of vocabulary and independent reading
‘Exploration exercises’ – These activities are designed using the National Curriculum to support the children in developing and applying their comprehension skills e.g. predicting using evidence from the text.
Answering comprehension questions independently covering the skills that have been taught throughout the week

Individual Reading

Children select books from the appropriate book band based on their reading ability from the school library or from book areas in classrooms.

Reading for Pleasure

The school library has a wide range of fiction and non-fiction books that the children can access for pleasure and for books that support their learning across the curriculum.

Every class also has a high quality text that the class teacher reads to the children at least three times a week. These books build the children’s experience of different texts and further develop their vocabulary and understanding of authorial intent. They also use it as an opportunity to develop pupil’s understanding and enjoyment of books.

Children in Early Years and Key Stage 1 take a ‘reading for pleasure’ book home weekly to share with their family. An annual book week is planned with a variety of activities including a book fair to ensure the profile of reading across school is high. Parents and visitors are encouraged to share stories with children in school. A group of Year Six children are ‘Reader Leaders’. The group encourages enjoyment in reading through a variety of activities including: Supporting younger children with their reading, leading assemblies, sharing book recommendations, running competitions, looking after the library and promoting a love of reading across school.

Impact

Attainment in reading is measured using the statutory assessments at the end of Key Stage One and Two. These results are measured against the reading attainment of children nationally. Additionally, we use NFER assessments to track children’s progress during the year alongside ongoing teacher assessment notes to build the picture of children’s reading skills. Attainment in phonics is measured by the Phonics Screening Test at the end of Year 1.

Through the teaching of systematic phonics and reciprocal reading, children become fluent readers by the end of Key Stage One. This enables children to focus on further developing their fluency and comprehension skills as they move through the school. Children:

Are secure in Phase 5 phonics by the time the Phonics Screening Check is administered.
Are able to read fluently both for pleasure and to further their learning.
Have a good knowledge of a range of genres and authors.
Participate in discussions about books, including evaluating an author’s use of language and the impact this can have on the reader.
Are adventurous with vocabulary choices in oral and written work.
Have the reading skills needed to be successful in their next stage of education.