READING
The English reading curriculum has been designed to ensure all learners, particularly the most disadvantaged, become confident readers, reading easily, fluently and with good understanding and to the best of their ability. Our aim is to provide children with as many opportunities to feed their imagination and open up a treasure chest of wonder, excitement and joy. We encourage children to read widely and often to increase their knowledge and understanding of themselves and the world they live in.
The teaching of reading begins early when children are exposed to a range of stories and poems from Nursery and individual and small group reading takes place in Reception in line with our phonics scheme, Rocket Phonics. Using the Reading Planet reading scheme, in Key Stage 1, the children take part in guided reading every day for a minimum of 30 minutes. This is facilitated using a carousel system which is designed to give every group the opportunity of Independent reading, Teaching Assistant supported Reading, Teacher supported Reading. The sessions are used to practice reading skills, develop word recognition, reinforce phonics and develop comprehension skills. Each group is allocated a reading scheme book at an appropriate (instructional) level to the group of children.
Sharing a book daily with an adult at home is encouraged and children take home 2-3 books each week. We ask that where possible, these books are read more than once before they are returned to school. For children in Reception and Year 1 and some in Year 2, these books will also be decodable and will allow the practise of phonemes which have been taught. Beyond the decodable books, children take home books that reflect their independent reading ability. Every child also takes home a class library book to share with their family. All the books, stories and information books, for reading at home will capture children’s interest and nurture a love of reading.
The guided reading model is continued in Year 3 until December when, based on Teacher Assessment and knowledge of the children, they will then transition on to the Key Stage 2 Whole Class Reading approach. This may occur in February also and by April, all Year 3 will be following the Whole Class Reading Approach.
The Whole Class Reading approach follows a five-day sequence. Each year group has a number of age appropriate high quality texts which have been chosen for their content (themes and issues) and are rich in vocabulary. The children are taught to respond to different question types such as retrieval and inference questions and higher-level questioning using the PEE strategy to respond. The children explore vocabulary within the texts ensuring they are building on decoding and deciphering skills and regularly carry out drama activities such as conscience alley, hot seating and emotion graphs to fully understand characters and in turn, authorial intent.
Reading at home
It is vitally important for your child's development that you try to find the time at home to read with them. Reading for just 20 minutes per night will greatly improve your child's academic ability.
Here is a poster of some useful tips that you can use when reading with your child a home
