Reading:

Intent

At Barming Primary School, the intent of our Reading curriculum is to deliver a curriculum that instils a lifelong love of literature in our children through reading for pleasure.   We strongly believe that it is every child’s right to learn to read and to develop an enjoyment of reading.   Our children have access to a wide range of high-quality texts both in the class libraries and the year group phase libraries.  Through reading a wide range of texts both for personal enjoyment and quality texts shared in whole class guided reading lessons, pupils at Barming Primary School have opportunities to develop their cultural, emotional, moral, social and spiritual understanding of the world. 

Our Reading curriculum intentions are to:

• apply phonic knowledge and skills as the route to decode words
• develop stamina to read easily, fluently and with good understanding
• acquire a wide vocabulary, an understanding of grammar and knowledge of linguistic conventions for reading and which act as models for their own writing
• appreciate our rich and varied literary heritage and understand/internalise the structure of texts
• link texts to the children’s own experiences, learning or topical issues
• use discussion to develop an understanding of author intent, critical thinking – reading to provoke thought in children
• develop the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information

Implementation

Early Years and Key Stage One (Years 1 & 2)

• Teachers teach using the systematic synthetic programme, Read Write Inc.: Phonics and use a detailed, step-by-step teaching scheme.   Children are first taught simple GPCs, to accurately blend taught sounds, to decode simple words containing taught graphemes and then to read specifically designed books that match their knowledge of phonics and the common exception words.
• Children are asked key questions using the specifically designed books to support their understanding of the text.
• Pupils are taught in small homogenous, flexible groups, across Years R, 1 and 2, which align to the standards they achieve in phonics.
• Children are regularly assessed by the reading leaders to ascertain progress and ensure the programme is matched to their attainment.   Where needed, 1:1 interventions are put in place.
• Teaching staff will use RWI resources and follow detailed lesson plans to maintain the consistency of the teaching of reading across every lesson.   Dependent on the group the children are working, they may follow a 3 day or 5 day timetable.

Whole Class Book Share Session

• Key texts shared in classes through the week in addition to the core Read Write Inc. texts shared.  Children are encouraged to make predictions, share character feelings and thoughts.
• Sessions encourage book talk and enjoyment of a range of texts.
• Teachers and children use actions to reinforce meaning and emphasise key language patterns.
• On some occasions, the teacher will ask questions to check understanding and develop children’s knowledge of stories.

Key Stage Two

Whole Class Guided Reading

Daily whole class reading of a shared text to all children.   For those children who are working out of key stage, and/or in which the complexity of a novel may not be understood, additional text share of less complex texts will be provided.

The implementation lessons will vary depending on the reading skill being taught and purpose.   However, practice will involve some of the following:

• Shared texts that have been selected to widen the children’s exposure to texts on different themes, by different authors and include both classics and modern texts.
• Book Talk – front/back cover, type of book, predictions.
• The teacher reading the text aloud, followed by asking questions based on what has been read.   Modelling reading aloud and without interruption means that children gain knowledge of the whole text.   This will then be repeated so that the children can emulate intonation and expression.

Sessions may give the children opportunities to use paired reading or choral reading.

Key foci lessons may include making predictions, drawing inferences, grammar and punctuation, vocabulary development, features of the text type, questioning, making links with existing knowledge of other texts, summarising, fluency, intonation, character and plot development.

Comprehension Practice will involve some of the following:

• Teachers implement discrete comprehension lessons although the majority of comprehension teaching is through Novel Study.
• Teachers may use VIPERS to inform the questions asked within the comprehension.
• Teachers will focus on one area of comprehension e.g. retrieval and explicitly teach the skill etc.
• Children will answer questions on the text.

Reading for pleasure – at school and at home:

EYFS, Years 1 & 2

Individual Reading In Years R - 2 provides opportunity for the children to be provided with two books per week.   One of these books will be closely matched to their phonic/reading ability and will be a book from the Read, Write Inc. Phonics programme.  The other book is chosen by the child and may or may not be phonetically decodable.   The second book is to be shared with the adults at home for enjoyment.

Key Stage Two

Children in Years 3 - 6 will have opportunities to access books from class or year group phase libraries.   Children are heard to read at least once over a 2 week period.   For those identified as needing to be heard more, they will be heard to read more often by both the class teacher and teaching assistant.

During 1:1 reading sessions, adults will be assessing fluency which will also be demonstrated through correct expression, intonation and pace to reflect the content of the novel.

Impact

The impact of our reading curriculum is:

• Children will know all 44 sounds and the corresponding letters/letter groups using simple picture prompts.   Children will read words using sound blending.
• Children will become fluent readers.   Fluency will also be demonstrated through correct expression, intonation and pace to reflect the content of the novel.
• More children will opt for high-quality texts when choosing a new novel to read.   Children will have developed life-long reading skills, improving their ability and confidence to read a text.
• Children will have increased their familiarity with different question types and will develop their comprehension skills including author intent and critical thinking.   This will result in improved summative assessment scores.
• Children will be able to reflect on their own experiences in relation to the texts shared and discuss the comparisons.
• Children will develop a wide vocabulary base on which to draw from when developing their own written and verbal compositions.
• Children will have an increased knowledge of text types and story structure.

This impact can be seen within our Reading Journals that showcase our whole class text approach and within the classroom.   We want all our children to be able to articulate how they are taught reading and how this impacts the choices they make as a reader.   Children are being prepared for the next stage of their education through this thorough approach so that they can read at an age-appropriate level and fluency.   This is to ensure that they can access the wider curriculum.