Reading

Purpose of study

Reading is central to children’s intellectual, emotional and social development. It has an essential role across the wider curriculum and helps pupils’ learning to be coherent and progressive. It is planned in a sequential way that builds on previous knowledge and understanding. Through the English curriculum, we will help children develop the skills and knowledge that will enable them to communicate effectively and creatively through spoken and written language and equip them with the skills to become lifelong learners.

Our School Vision for Reading

At Perryfields, we are determined that every child will learn to be a fluent, competent reader and develop a real love of reading.

The teaching of Phonics and Reading at Perryfields Primary School aims to enable children to:

speak clearly, accurately and confidently in order to express their opinions, articulate feelings and formulate responses.

be effective, competent communicators and active listeners; making formal presentations, demonstrating to others and participating in democratic debate.

acquire a wide and ambitious vocabulary.

foster an interest in words, their etymology and meanings

develop confidence and become independent readers.

enjoy, engage and read for pleasure a range of text types and genres.

appreciate our rich and varied literary heritage and so develop their cultural capital.

use grammar, punctuation and spelling accurately.

EYFS

Pupils learn:

Reading comes under the ‘Literacy’ area of learning within the Foundation Stage Curriculum. The Early Learning Goals relating to reading for children at the expected level of development are:

Say a sound for each letter in the alphabet and at least 10 digraphs.

Read words consistent with their phonic knowledge by sound-blending.

Read aloud simple sentences and books that are consistent with their phonic knowledge, including some common exception words.

During the Early Years Foundation Stage, It is crucial for children to develop a life-long love of reading. Reading consists of two dimensions: language comprehension and word reading. Language comprehension (necessary for both reading and writing) starts from birth. It only develops when adults talk with children about the world around them and the books (stories and non-fiction) they read with them, and enjoy rhymes, poems and songs together. Skilled word reading, taught later, involves both the speedy working out of the pronunciation of unfamiliar printed words (decoding) and the speedy recognition of familiar printed words.

Key Stage One

Pupils learn to:

During year 1, teachers should build on work from the Early Years Foundation Stage, making sure that pupils can sound and blend unfamiliar printed words quickly and accurately using the phonic knowledge and skills that they have already learnt. Teachers should also ensure that pupils continue to learn new grapheme-phoneme correspondences (GPCs) and revise and consolidate those learnt earlier. The understanding that the letter(s) on the page represent the sounds in spoken words should underpin pupils’ reading and spelling of all words. This includes common words containing unusual GPCs. The term ‘common exception words’ is used throughout the programmes of study for such words.

Alongside this knowledge of GPCs, pupils need to develop the skill of blending the sounds into words for reading and establish the habit of applying this skill whenever they encounter new words. This will be supported by practice in reading books consistent with their developing phonic knowledge and skill and their knowledge of common exception words. At the same time they will need to hear, share and discuss a wide range of high-quality books to develop a love of reading and broaden their vocabulary.

Pupils should be helped to read words without overt sounding and blending after a few encounters. Those who are slow to develop this skill should have extra practice. By the beginning of year 2, pupils should be able to read all common graphemes. They should be able to read unfamiliar words containing these graphemes, accurately and without undue hesitation, by sounding them out in books that are matched closely to each pupil’s level of word reading knowledge. They should also be able to read many common words containing GPCs taught so far [for example, shout, hand, stop, or dream], without needing to blend the sounds out loud first. Pupils’ reading of common exception words [for example, you, could, many, or people], should be secure. Pupils will increase their fluency by being able to read these words easily and automatically. Finally, pupils should be able to retell some familiar stories that have been read to and discussed with them or that they have acted out during year 1.

During year 2, teachers should continue to focus on establishing pupils’ accurate and speedy word reading skills. They should also make sure that pupils listen to and discuss a wide range of stories, poems, plays and information books; this should include whole books. The sooner that pupils can read well and do so frequently, the sooner they will be able to increase their vocabulary, comprehension and their knowledge across the wider curriculum.

Key Stage Two

Pupils learn to:

By the beginning of year 3, pupils should be able to read books written at an age-appropriate interest level. They should be able to read them accurately and at a speed that is sufficient for them to focus on understanding what they read rather than on decoding individual words. They should be able to decode most new words outside their spoken vocabulary, making a good approximation to the word’s pronunciation. As their decoding skills become increasingly secure, teaching should be directed more towards developing their vocabulary and the breadth and depth of their reading, making sure that they become independent, fluent and enthusiastic readers who read widely and frequently. They should be developing their understanding and enjoyment of stories, poetry, plays and non-fiction, and learning to read silently. They should also be developing their knowledge and skills in reading non-fiction about a wide range of subjects. They should be learning to justify their views about what they have read: with support at the start of year 3 and increasingly independently by the end of year 4.

By the beginning of year 5, pupils should be able to read aloud a wider range of poetry and books written at an age-appropriate interest level with accuracy and at a reasonable speaking pace. They should be able to read most words effortlessly and to work out how to pronounce unfamiliar written words with increasing automaticity. If the pronunciation sounds unfamiliar, they should ask for help in determining both the meaning of the word and how to pronounce it correctly.

They should be able to prepare readings, with appropriate intonation to show their

understanding, and should be able to summarise and present a familiar story in their own words. They should be reading widely and frequently, outside as well as in school, for pleasure and information. They should be able to read silently, with good understanding, inferring the meanings of unfamiliar words, and then discuss what they have read.

During years 5 and 6, teachers should continue to emphasise pupils’ enjoyment and

understanding of language, especially vocabulary, to support their reading and writing. Pupils’ knowledge of language, gained from stories, plays, poetry, non-fiction and textbooks, will support their increasing fluency as readers.

How we achieve this

Preparing staff for, and helping them to implement all National Curriculum recommendations through Continual Professional Development.

Promoting a dynamic approach to the development of reading within and beyond the curriculum.

Exposing our children to a range of reading materials which reflect our modern society.

Building the confidence of children to be resilient readers who can use reading as a tool to unlock other information across the curriculum.

Additional Offer – Developing a Lifelong Love of Reading

Our reading areas within school are attractive, stimulating and well organised so that every child understands how to use it and develop their own independent reading skills and a love of books. Reading is front and central to our curriculum and we instil a love of reading in a variety of ways:

Whole class reading every day or story time with the class teacher.

Individual choice reading including a variety of book choices across school.

Reading Buddy reading opportunities.

Whole school celebrations – e.g. World Book Day.

Scholastics Book Fair (twice a year).

Library

We are always seeking new and innovative ways in which we develop our children’s reading for pleasure. Children are also encouraged to use, with increasing independence, their class and whole school library. All home readers in the library are colour banded according to the Reading Banding Scheme. Every pupil in school is allocated a colour band according to their reading ability. Children read a range of books from that colour band and move progressively through the different bands. There are two banded challenge sections in the library: ‘50 books to read before your leave Year Four’ and ‘100 books to read before you leave Year Six’ which challenge children to read a range of materials designed to broaden their cultural capital.

Individual Reading

All children will be issued with a School Planner or Reading Diary and their reading fluency assessed. This information is used to place the child on our reading scheme. All children up to Year Four are expected to maintain a Reading Diary as well as those who we identify as the ‘lowest 20%’ from Years Five and Six. We actively encourage parents and carers to read with children ten minutes daily.

Website links to support Reading

https://literacytrust.org.uk/free-resources/ National Literacy Trust

https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/for-home/reading-owl/find-a-book/library-page Oxford Owl Free primary on-line e-library.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1007446/6.7534_DfE_Development_Matters_Report_and_illustrations_web__2_.pdf Development Matters – Non-statutory curriculum guidance for the early years foundation stage (publishing.service.gov.uk) The Development Matters EYFS Framework.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-curriculum-in-england-english-programmes-of-study/national-curriculum-in-england-english-programmes-of-study National curriculum in England: English programmes of study – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) The KS1 and KS2 National curriculum in England: English programmes of study.

https://www.littlewandlelettersandsounds.org.uk/ The Little Wandle Phonics website