English: Reading

We are Readers.

Intent

At Walmley Infant School, we believe that our children should develop a love of learning and show care and respect for each other within the context of a happy, secure and challenging learning environment.

Through teaching, we aim to develop a love of literature through widespread reading for enjoyment. We want to enable children to read a varied selection of texts whilst gaining an increased level of fluency and understanding.

Children who are good at reading do more of it: they learn more, about all sorts of things, and their expanded vocabulary, gained from their reading, increases their ease of access to more reading…it is not just that the academically able children read more but that they have become academically more able through the reading they have done.

The Reading Framework—July 2023

Implementation

Reading in Nursery

Children are read to each day and are introduced to a range of texts, including fiction and non-fiction books.  Children are encouraged to retell and extend stories in order for them to develop their book language.  Each week the children have a library session and take a library book home.

 

Reading in Reception

Children are grouped by ability for Guided Reading. All children have at least one Guided Reading Session with an adult per week.  This consists of a balance of phonics, word and sentence level reading. Comprehension of the text underpins all reading. Children are encouraged to share their own experiences thus linking them with the book and fostering a life-long love of reading. Children are given sets of words to learn in order to build up a sight vocabulary. These are monitored and updated regularly.

A Reception Workshop for parents is held early in the Autumn term to share our approach to reading and to pass on information and resources that will help at home.

 

Guided Reading in Key Stage One.

Guided Reading lessons take place daily.  Children are grouped according to ability and read books appropriate to their reading level, using the Reading Stars Phonics books that matches our phonics scheme Unlocking Letters and Sounds. There are 225 books that offer progression on a week-by-week basis. The books are fiction and non-fiction, offer a variety of text types, and share diverse stories, topics and characters that ensure every child has the chance to ‘find themselves’ in the pages of the books. The books support all Phases of the programme, from Phase 1 (books without words) through to Phase 5. The book matching chart shows which books may be introduced in each week. For nearly every week, there are always at least two new books than can be introduced, for the entire duration of the programme. Children learn with a teacher in groups that are no bigger than six pupils. Within group reading the teacher and pupils focus on a specific learning objective. If any additional adults are present for a Guided Reading lesson, they will support group reading. During the session, teachers have a reading focus linked to the national curriculum as well as questions to develop comprehension.

When children are not learning with an adult in a guided reading session, they learn independently. The independent tasks aim to develop a love of reading, comprehensive skills and phonic knowledge. Some tasks are completed in exercise books and marked according to the school marking policy.

All children in Reception and Key Stage One also choose a book from the school library each week to take home. This gives children an opportunity to have a book of choice to read for pleasure at home with their families.

In order for children to become confident, fluent and enthusiastic readers, when following Unlocking Letters and Sounds with Reading Stars Phonics books, we give them opportunities to develop these skills in different ways as seen below:

What does this mean?
How do we do this?
What books do we use?
Word Recognition
Readers are able to decode words and read CEWs
Daily phonics lessons, reading practise through guided reading lessons and individual reading.
Fully decodable books which precisely match current phonics attainment
Fluency and prosody
readers are able to read aloud without sounding out GPCs.
Daily phonics lessons, reading practise through guided reading lessons and individual reading, adults model this when reading.
Fully decodable books that precisely matches current phonics attainment, adults model using a range of books and texts.
Vocabulary
Readers are introduced to a range of vocabulary.
There will be some opportunities to introduce new vocabulary during phonics and guided reading lessons. Richer vocabulary will be found by reading children a range of rich and powerful books, texts and poems.
A rich range of books, texts and poems.
Comprehension
Readers develop understanding of what they have read and make links with their own lives and the wider world through their reading.
There will be some opportunities to develop comprehension skills during guided reading lessons. More opportunities will be found by reading children a range of rich and powerful books, texts and poems.
A rich range of books, texts and poems.

In KS1 Children are assessed on Tapestry, according to the National Curriculum learning objectives. In EYFS, children are assessed using Development Matters and the Early Learning Goals.

Impact

The reading curriculum will produce a community of enthusiastic readers who will proudly celebrate their successes in Reading across the curriculum and beyond the classroom environment. The children will understand ambitious vocabulary, read with fluency and understanding and take the necessary skills needed to be successful readers in the years that follow.

For the future, our students at Walmley Infant School will:

  • Enjoy reading a range of fiction, non-fiction and poetry and have the ability to discuss each text type.
  • Develop strong word reading and language comprehension.
  • Show strengths in reading fluency.
  • Spend time reading for pleasure.