English

Reading

When children leave our school, we expect them to be avid readers. Children who read fluently and widely, are able to express preferences and opinions about texts they read. We want them to read for pleasure having access to a wide range of text types, genres and authors in order to make informed opinions about their favourites. Our children will use reading as a vehicle to understand the world around them and their place within it. 

Through our reading curriculum, children will… 

• Develop phonic knowledge so they can accurately decode words, using a consistent and progressive approach throughout EYFS and KS1 

• Develop fluency in reading and be able to read with tone and expression 

• Develop a love of reading and individual preferences for books and authors 

• Be able to talk confidently about books and their views on what they have read 

• Develop and extend their vocabulary 

• Develop a deep understanding of what they have read 

• Develop their understanding of the world through experiencing a wide range of different genres and authors 

Reading is at the heart of our curriculum and we ensure our English curriculum gets children into books right from the start. From the important foundations using our systematic and structured Phonics program to our Library and ‘Teacher VIB shelves’ (Very Important Book Shelves)- we make sure our school oozes books at every turn. Reading whole class quality texts as a basis for literacy and many other subjects makes sure that children are exposed to the best in children’s literature and a full range of genres. Many books studied are the first in a series in order to encourage children to develop reading on for pleasure. Poetry, non-fiction, digital texts and picture books feature through the English syllabus from EYFS to Year 6.

Our approach to reading is based on 4 guiding principles 

1. High quality, small group systematic synthetic phonics teaching which enables our youngest children to make a strong start with their reading. 

2. Exposure to a wide range of inspiring, high quality texts to instil a love of reading in our pupils. These books are mapped out for each class in a two-year cycle to ensure the children have a breadth and depth of experiences with fiction, non-fiction and poetry books and are linked to other curriculum areas where possible.  

3. High quality, whole class guided reading sessions to develop the skills of comprehension based on the Reading Vipers and building on skills from RWI reading lessons. 

4. Inspire a habit of reading for pleasure, ensuring they read widely and often. Accelerated Reader is a great way to do this, motivating children to read and to ensure they are successful in their reading. Children also have a class set of Dream Reads which they are inspired to read during their time in each class. 

Phonics

We use the systematic Read Write Inc program for our phonics teaching. Sessions run for daily in small groups where children are taught to recognise sounds, read decodable green words, red tricky words and alien words. They then practise spelling these words and writing them down. Children are taught to apply their phonics skills and improve fluency through the Readwrite inc story books in used during these sessions.

All staff receive training and regular updates and development days to ensure continuity and increase staff confidence in delivering theses sessions.

Children’s progress in phonics is closely tracked and children are regularly assessed and regrouped as appropriate. The Reading leader tracks progress and identifies children who require 1:1 intervention which is then implemented in order for children to catch up.

EYFS/KS1 Home Reading Books

Home reading books are phonics based and exactly match our phonics program to ensure books closely match the sound being taught in lessons. Children take these home and parents are encouraged to support their children in reading these. There are also activities and questions for them to complete in the front and back of the books.

Children progress through the reading levels is again closely tracked and once the reach the higher levels of the KS1 reading scheme they are moved onto the Accelerated reader program which enables us to match them on the correct level books whilst also tracking their comprehension of what they read.

Children are rewarded as they move through the different book colour levels. Once on the Accelerated Reader program children earn points for reading different books and are rewarded when they hit their targets.

KS2 Independent Reading Books

From KS2 onwards, children use the Accelerated Reader program to track progress and encourage them to read. Online Star tests identify children’s current reading levels and guide children to choosing books at an appropriate level. On completing books children take a short comprehension quiz and aim to score 100%. Various incentives run throughout the year where children can collect tickets for each 100% scored and are rewarded for this. This helps to incentivise reading and keeps children motivated to read and quiz.

Books can be chosen from our well stocked library, class reading corners, teacher VIB shelves (Very Important Book Shelves) or books from home. Children keep a record of their own progress in their reading record books where they note down scores and write book reviews.

Guided Reading

We use a whole class approach to guided reading in KS2. Whole class sets of books sourced from Durham Learning Resources are used. Texts are carefully mapped to link to books studied in Literacy lesson by genre, theme or Author. Several sessions a week are given over to reading the book and class discussion. One session a week is planned to teach a particular reading skill from

Vocabulary, Inference, prediction, evaluation, retrieval or summarising known in school as VIPERS. These lessons consist of a model question and practise questions for children to complete. Other written tasks may be used to further their understanding of the text. On a weekly basis VIPERS activities are used based on film clips, adverts, picture or text extracts as additional independent practise of these skills.

Writing

Our aim is to produce writers who are confident, creative, independent and able to write across a range of genres or text types and for a range of audiences and purposes.

From entering our school in EYFS, we focus on creating a language rich environment in order to develop speaking and listening skills and build vocabulary, enjoyment and understanding. The children make links between phonics, reading and writing for a purpose.

Texts are used to create opportunities to develop the links between reading and writing. Speaking, listening, drama and first -hand experiences are key teaching approaches.  Teaching is sequenced so that children experience different purposes for writing, key features of genres and explore good quality examples to scaffold their own experiences. Opportunities to share and evaluate the effectiveness of their writing, sharing their opinions and thoughts are supported and valued by adults.

Grammar is taught in context of writing whenever appropriate, with opportunities to practice and consolidate skills in collaborative activities and explicit sentence level work.

We follow ‘The Write Stuff’ structure to teach writing, which supports the teaching and learning model of being based on small steps, scaffolding and independent practice. Throughout a two-year rolling programme, each year group will complete 8-10 writing units every year.  Each unit of work is focused on a quality text, chosen to ensure the children experience a broad range of genres, text types and themes as they progress through school. As each unit is specific to the year group, there is a clear progression of appropriate skills and knowledge.

Lessons are made up of experience lessons and sentence stacking sessions and they culminate in an independent write:

Experience lessons are designed to stimulate ideas and generate quality vocabulary to apply to their writing.

Each sentence stacking lesson is based around a ‘plot point’ for narrative, or a ‘shape’ for non-fiction genres. Lessons concentrate on the teaching of writing with a sharp focus on the craft and construction of sentences. It builds up in small steps called learning chunks. Within each chunk, time is made for discussion and the collection of vocabulary and ideas, quality instruction around knowledge and skills and time the given for the children to apply those ideas, vocabulary and skills independently within sentences. Children’s creativity is developed by ‘deepening the moment’ which involves writing their own version of a text type and using lenses to enhance the quality.

Independent writing tasks gives children time to consolidate what they have learnt and apply it to their own piece of writing. Children will edit and improve an original idea to produce a final piece of work.