Reading

Teach a child to read and keep that child reading and we will change everything.

And I mean everything.

Jeanette Winterson

Every child deserves reading success right from the start in order to have their brightest future. We know that the sooner children learn to read, the greater their success at school. This is why we put reading at the heart of what we do.

Within Reading, pupils will develop a deep understanding of key concepts and strands. These key concepts have been carefully considered and identified as the core knowledge and skills required to successfully achieve in all aspects of reading. The key concepts are revisited and developed as the pupils move through the school to ensure the knowledge and skills are firmly embedded within the long term memory. These key concepts are reinforced in all areas of the curriculum. The expectation is that, by the end of primary school, children will know and understand these key concepts and have the reading skills to enter KS3 confidently.

Reading is taught on a daily basis and supported through home reading. In daily reading sessions, children are taught different skills with an aim to develop a child who reads fluently, with understanding and for enjoyment.

Key Concepts

These are explored through different texts and text types appropriate to the age and ability of the child.

Word Reading: Children are taught to apply their developing phonic knowledge to read fluently and accurately.

Comprehension: Children are taught the skills to understand and question the texts which they are reading.

Strands.

Within guided reading sessions, children are taught a range of skills in order for them to understand texts.

Vocabulary: Children are exposed to increasingly adventurous vocabulary in order to widen their knowledge and understanding.

Inference: Children are taught to draw conclusions based on their reading both explicit and implied information.

Prediction: Using prior knowledge, children are taught to predict what may happen next.

Explain: Using prior reading of the text, children are taught to explain events of the text.

Retrieve: Children are taught to retrieve information quickly and accurately.

Summarise: With precision and conciseness, children are taught how to give a statement of the main points in specific parts of paragraph.

In Reading, by the end of EYFS children will:

Demonstrate understanding of what has been read to them by retelling stories and narratives using their own words and recently introduced vocabulary. They will anticipate – where appropriate – key events in stories and will use and understand recently introduced vocabulary during discussions about stories, non-fiction, rhymes and poems and during role-play. Children will say a sound for each letter in the alphabet and will know at least 10 digraphs. They will read words consistent with their phonic knowledge by sound-blending. Children will read aloud simple sentences and books that are also consistent with their phonic knowledge, including some common exception words.

By the end of Key Stage 1 children will:

Be able to read accurately and with increased fluency. Children will read without overt sounding and blending and will read most common exception words. Children will be able to answer questions and be able summarise events from a text. Children will also make some inferences based on what is said and done.

By the end of Key Stage 2 children will:

Be able to read age-appropriate texts with confidence and fluency. They will draw inferences about characters’ feelings, thoughts and motives. They will be able to make plausible predictions and summaries. Children will be able to comment upon a writer’s choice of language and explain the effect of vocabulary on the reader. They will make reasoned justifications for their views using the text to support their opinions.

Any child working below their age-related expectation, will receive a tailored curriculum with personalised objectives taken from the Curriculum Assessment Toolkit. This will enable all children to build the skills and knowledge needed to bridge the gap between themselves and their peers enabling them to reach their full potential.

Implementation:

At Malvern Wells CE Primary School, our curriculum is carefully mapped out into a Long-Term Plan. This enables links between subjects to be identified and carefully planned for to support pupil’s retention of knowledge and skills.

At Malvern Wells, early reading and phonics are taught following the Read Write Inc phonic programme. 

With this in mind, all children are given books that carefully match their phonic reading ability according to the 'Read Write Inc' Program.

Read Write Inc ensures we follow a systematic and consistent approach to the teaching of phonics across each year group. Phonics lessons are taught daily at 9.00am from Reception to Year 2. We have a ‘keep up not catch up’ approach to phonics and so only a few identified children do not access this whole class session. These identified children follow a personalised learning programme instead. Children at risk of falling behind in whole class teaching are identified and these children receive additional, daily teaching. This additional teaching allows children to consolidate the mornings learning and immediately address any misconceptions observed.

Children are taught to read using Read Write Inc Set 1 Sounds as soon as they enter our Reception class. Children learn to use and apply their phonic knowledge by reading books that match their phonic ability. Children are also taught to read high-frequency ‘harder to read’ words and the program calls these 'red' words. Children’s progress in developing and applying their phonic knowledge is carefully assessed and monitored. By the end of our Foundation Stage, children are expected to working within Set 2. By the end of Year One, the expectation is for children to be secure in, and working within Set 3.

In Year One, the children complete the National Phonics Screening Check – a statutory assessment that was introduced in 2012 for all Year 1 pupils. It comprises a list of 40 real words and nonsense words that assess phonics skills and knowledge learnt through our Foundation Stage and year 1. The check is very similar to tasks that the children already complete during phonics lessons. Phonics teaching continues in Year 2. For children who have not met the phonics standard for Year 1, they receive daily intervention in order to meet the standard at the end of year 2.