English - Reading

READING AT KINGSMOOR LOWER SCHOOL

By providing our children with access to a of a range of fiction, non-fiction and poetry texts, we strive to develop our children's love of reading and discussion by creating a curriculum that encourages them to become excited and engaged with reading.  By embedding reading skills and knowledge in a range of lessons across the curriculum, we endeavour to nurture the children's understanding of the value of reading to them now in their futures.

Intent

Phonics (reading and spelling)

At Kingsmoor Lower School, we believe that all our children can become fluent readers and writers. This is why we teach reading through Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised, which is a systematic and synthetic phonics programme. We start teaching phonics in Nursery / Reception and follow the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised progression, which ensures children build on their growing knowledge of the alphabetic code, mastering phonics to read and spell as they move through school.

As a result, all our children are able to tackle any unfamiliar words as they read. At Kingsmoor Lower School, we also model the application of the alphabetic code through phonics in shared reading and writing, both inside and outside of the phonics lesson and across the curriculum. We have a strong focus on language development for our children because we know that speaking and listening are crucial skills for reading and writing in all subjects.

Comprehension

At Kingsmoor Lower School, we value reading as a crucial life skill. By the time children leave us, they read confidently for meaning and regularly enjoy reading for pleasure. Our readers are equipped with the tools to tackle unfamiliar vocabulary. We encourage our children to see themselves as readers for both pleasure and purpose.

Because we believe teaching every child to read is so important, we have a Reading Leader who drives the early reading programme in our school. This person is highly skilled at teaching phonics and reading, and they monitor and support our reading team, so everyone teaches with fidelity to the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised programme.

Implementation

Foundations for phonics and early reading in Early Years Foundation Stage:

In EYFS, reading is taught through shared reading, using large print books and picture books. Pupils are taught the process of reading; learning that words and pictures have meaning. Through a range of practical activities children learn familiar stories. Pupils explore skills such as sequencing, prediction and retrieval. Using the Little Wandle programme our pupils are taught the initial sounds of the English language.

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
• attention to high-quality language.

Teaching reading in Key Stage 1

In KS1, the children’s growing phonetic awareness helps the development of reading by segmenting and blending sounds. The children will be heard read individually and in small groups during our focused practise sessions. Whole class reading is taught through a shared reading approach using large print books or the IWB. Many of the books are rhythmical and have repetitive patterns. Pupils are taught reading through a mix of focused practise sessions and whole class reading.  

KS1 Focused reading practice sessions three times a week

• For children who are still learning phonics, we teach them to read through reading practice sessions three times a week. These:
  • are taught by a fully trained adult to small groups of approximately 6-8 children
  • use books matched to the children’s secure phonic knowledge.
  • are monitored by the class teacher, who rotates and works with each group on a regular basis.
• 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 / fluency
  • prosody: teaching children to read with understanding and expression
  • comprehension: teaching children to understand the text.
• In Year 2, we continue to teach reading in this way for any children who still need to practise reading with decodable books. However, as they begin to read with more fluency and independence, we begin to adapt these reading sessions to focus on exploring specific VIPERS comprehension skills: Vocabulary, Inference, Prediction, Retrieval, Sequencing and some summarising. Children also regularly take part in written comprehension sessions to further develop their growing comprehension skills.

Pupils also explore a wide range of fiction and non-fiction texts in their foundation lessons, which are based around age-appropriate texts linked to the topic being studied.

KS2 Teaching reading: Reading practice sessions three times a week

• We teach children to read through reading practice sessions three times a week. These:
  • are taught by a fully trained adult to small groups of approximately 6-8 children
  • use resources from ‘Fred’s Teaching’ Reading as well as other resources linked to the level the children are reading at and the topics in class.
  • are monitored by the class teacher, who rotates and works with each group on a regular basis.
• In Year 3 & 4, 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:
  • vocabulary: widening the children’s vocabulary and understanding of meanings in context
  • fluency (decoding) and prosody: teaching children to read with understanding and expression
  • recorded comprehension: teaching children to understand the text.
• Children in Year 3 & 4 who have not reached the expected level in the phonics screening check by the end of Year 2 will continue to follow the KS1 structure of teaching reading in order to provide them with more phonics focussed reading teaching.
• Children in Year 3 & 4 who are receiving additional phonics Keep-up sessions read their reading practice book to an adult daily.

Individual Reading in School

Children across the school are listened to at least once a week by an adult in school. This could be their class teacher, teaching assistant or a reading volunteer. Reluctant readers, or those pupils who struggle with reading are identified as ‘priority readers’ and are heard more regularly to ensure that they make expected progress. Pupils are regularly tested to assess their reading level, ensuring that pupils are reading the most appropriate books.

Reading Scheme Book Bands

Home reading

• A decodable reading practice book is taken home to ensure success is shared with the family.
• In Year 1, a homework sheet containing the week’s focus sounds is also sent home so that children can consolidate their learning from the classroom at home.

• Reading for pleasure books also go home for parents to share and read to children (chosen from our library).

Parents Guide to Reading at home

Ensuring reading for pleasure

‘Reading for pleasure is the single most important indicator of a child’s success.’ (OECD 2002)

‘The will influences the skill and vice versa.’ (OECD 2010)

We value reading for pleasure highly and work hard as a school to grow our Reading for Pleasure pedagogy.

• We read to children every day. We choose these books carefully as we want children to experience a wide range of books, including books that reflect the children at Kingsmoor Lower School and our local community as well as books that open windows into other worlds and cultures.
• Every classroom has an inviting book corner that encourages a love for reading. We curate these books and talk about them to entice children to read a wide range of books.
• Every classroom has a selection of books linked to their current topic on display and we encourage the children to read and share these books to further support their learning and widen their interests.
• In Nursery/Reception, children have access to the reading corner every day in their free flow time and the books are continually refreshed.
• Children from Reception onwards have a home reading record. The parent/carer records comments to share with the adults in school and the adults will write in this on a regular basis to ensure communication between home and school.

As the children progress through the school, they are encouraged to write their own comments and keep a list of the books/authors that they have read.

• Each class visits the school library every week and the children select a ‘reading for pleasure’ book.
• Children across the school have opportunities to engage with a wide range of Reading for Pleasure events (book fairs, author visits and workshops, national events etc).

Curriculum

At Kingsmoor, we teach the Literacy elements of the Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum in Ladybirds and Rabbits (Nursery and Reception).

Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage

In KS1, we teach the English National Curriculum in single year group classes to allow us to build a strong foundation of the early reading, writing and discussion skills. In KS2, the National Curriculum is taught in mixed Year 3 and 4 classes.

English Programmes of Study: Key Stages 1 & 2

Impact

Assessment

Assessment is used to monitor progress and to identify any child needing additional support as soon as they need it.

• Assessment for learning is used:
  • daily within class to identify children needing Keep-up support
  • weekly in the Review lesson to assess gaps, address these immediately and secure fluency of GPCs, words and spellings.
• Summative assessment for Reception and Year 1 is used:
  • every six weeks to assess progress, to identify gaps in learning that need to be addressed, to identify any children needing additional support and to plan the Keep-up support that they need.
  • by SLT/Reading Leaders and is scrutinised through the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised assessment tracker, to narrow attainment gaps between different groups of children and so that any additional support for teachers can be put into place.
• Year 1: Fluency assessments measure children’s accuracy and reading speed in short one-minute assessments. They are used:

• with children following the Rapid Catch-up programme in Years 2 to 4, when they are reading the Phase 5 set 3, 4 and 5 books
• to assess when children are ready to exit their programme. For Year 1 children, this is when they read the final fluency assessment at 60–70+ words per minute. Older children can exit the Rapid Catch-up programme when they read the final fluency assessment at 90+ words per minute. At these levels, children should have sufficient fluency to tackle any book at age-related expectations. After exiting their programme, children do not need to ready any more fully decodable books.

• Years 2-4: Fluency assessments measure children’s accuracy and reading speed, as well as comprehension, in short assessments from the ‘Benchmarking’ folder to ensure that children are reading books matched to their reading level.
• A placement assessment is used with any child new to the school in Reception and Year 1 to quickly identify any gaps in their phonic knowledge and plan and provide appropriate extra teaching. The Rapid Catch-up assessment is used with any child new to the school in Year 2 and above to quickly identify any gaps in their phonic knowledge and plan and provide appropriate extra teaching.

Statutory assessment

• Children in Year 1 sit the phonics screening check in the summer term. Any child who has not met the expected standard will re-sit the phonics screening check in the summer term of Year 2.

Phonics Screening Check - Information for Parents

Ongoing assessment for Rapid Catch-up in Years 2 to 4

• Children in Year 2 to 4 are assessed through:
  • the Rapid Catch-up initial assessment to quickly identify any gaps in their phonic knowledge and plan appropriate teaching
  • the Rapid Catch-up summative assessments to assess progress and inform teaching
  • the Rapid Catch-up fluency assessments when children are reading the Phase 5 set 3, 4 and 5 books for age 7+.
• The fluency assessments measure children’s accuracy and reading speed in short
  one-minute assessments. They also assess when children are ready to exit the Rapid Catch-up programme, which is when they read the final fluency assessment at 90+ words per minute.