Reading
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Mrs Joanne Bradbury
Assistant Headteacher, Reading, Art and Design Technology Lead
Curriculum Intent
At Heamoor School we want pupils to develop a love of reading, a good knowledge of a range of authors and be able to understand more about the world in which they live, through the knowledge they gain from books. We believe that all pupils should have the opportunity to be fluent, confident readers who are able to successfully comprehend and understand a wide range of texts. By the time children leave Heamoor they are competent readers who can recommend books to their peers, have a thirst for reading a range of genres including poetry, and participate in discussions about books, including evaluating an author’s use of language and the impact this can have on the reader.
Taught Reading
In EYFS the children are preparing for their reading readiness by being surrounded by vocabulary, ranging from learning to read their names and being exposed to words throughout their learning environment.
We teach Read Write Inc phonics from the first week of their schooling as we see the importance in early reading for their development. When the children have learnt enough sounds and are able to blend some simple CVC words together they will then start taking the first Ditty stage of reading books home.
In Key Stage One children are provided daily taught phonics lessons. These lessons give children the opportunity to learn and practise the phonics that will support them with the building blocks for reading and writing.
In Years 3-6 children experience taught reading sessions, three times a week through 'Novel Study'. The purpose of these sessions is:
- to expose the children to high quality texts;
- to enable them to reflect upon what they are reading;
- to improve their comprehension skills.
Each class will focus on a book/novel each half term and will, therefore, have read six books across the year through these ‘guided’ reading sessions. This means that when your child leaves Heamoor School at the end of Year 6 they will be familiar with thirty high quality books which they have read and understood.
Accelerated Reading
Accelerated Reading is a reading programme which is being used for children in Key Stage 2. This programme enables teachers to easily monitor your child’s progress and ensures that the books that they are reading are appropriate for their level and ability. The AR programme works by following these steps:
- Your child chooses a book and reads it at their own pace.
- When the book has been read, they search for a quiz on the AR website.
- The quiz is taken in school.
- They choose a new book to read.
The children will, periodically, take ‘STAR tests’ in school to determine their AR reading level. The reading level they receive will determine which book level (BL) they read. (levels are colour coded).
There will be dedicated AR sessions in school, four times a week, for twenty-five minutes. During this time, your child will either be reading independently or taking a book quiz.
Reading Karate
The children in Key Stage 1 will follow our ‘Reading Karate’ scheme. The scheme works as follows:
- Parents record what their child has read in their reading diary which will then be checked at school and counted.
- Your child should be reading a minimum of 4 pages to count as one read
- Only one read will be counted per day
- Parents MUST sign each read in the reading diary for it to be counted as a read
When your child has achieved 15 reads they will need to show their reading diary to the class teacher/teaching assistant. When they have read a further 15 times they will need to show their reading diary to the class teacher/teaching assistant again. The white wristband will need to be brought back to school so that it can be swapped for a yellow one. This will continue until your child achieves their accomplished black wristband, which they are allowed to keep. They will then work towards achieving Shodan Eagle, Nidan Tiger and Sandan Dragon awards – the mark of a true Reading Karate Master!
How we provide support for the lowest 20% of readers across the school.
· We have developed sufficient expertise in the teaching of phonics and reading that ensures consistency from one year to the next. All staff and support staff had the full RWI training in September 2020.
· The lowest 20% of children are taught by their class teacher in phonics.
· The assessment of pupils’ phonics progress is sufficiently frequent and detailed to identify any pupil who is falling behind the programme’s pace, so that targeted support can be given immediately. This is done through targeted 1:1 tutoring which takes place three times a week and is run by an experienced class TA.
· Training for staff is focused on 1:1 tutoring. Our recent development day focus was to train staff who would be delivering 1:1 tutoring in phonics from Rec-Year 3. They were given training in addition to the full RWI training to give them additional skills in teaching these spotlight children. Individual records are kept for these children and assessments are used as a working document to ensure ongoing progress.
· The lowest 20% of readers in year 3 have a daily phonics session. They also have access to the RWI scheme books and have regular half-termly assessments to monitor their progress.
· Teachers give pupils sufficient practice in reading and re-reading books that match the grapheme-phoneme correspondences they know, both at school and at home. The children in the lowest 20% of readers get to read each day. Parent engagement is also monitored carefully by checking reading diaries daily.
· The group sizes are kept to a maximum of ten with less children in the lower ability groups.
· The child’s ‘partner reader’ is carefully matched for them to ensure that they have quality reading time within the phonics session.
· Teachers are aware of the lowest 20% of readers in their class and this is reviewed each term to shine a light on these spotlight children and help teachers make judgements about which interventions need to take place.
· Children in KS2 have reading interventions run by the class teachers to ensure a consistent approach to the classroom.