Reading
Our teaching of English includes phonics, reading, writing, handwriting and EGPS (English, punctuation, grammar and spelling). Please find here the primary national curriculum for English:
Success in reading underpins success in all subjects. Established readers have access to the riches of the curriculum and develop a love of reading that lasts with them a lifetime. Therefore, it is paramount that we have a clear and robust method of teaching reading to all children. Reading is multidimensional and draws on knowledge and experience, both personal and academic. The different strands of our reading provision, though interlinked, specifically target different dimensions of reading. Our reading spine ensures all children experience powerful texts across the curriculum.
Whole Class Teaching (Y2-6):
Reading is taught discretely in a thirty-minute reading lesson either four or five times per week. In years three to six, and in years two where appropriate, the key skills of reading are developed through whole-class lessons exploring beautiful, rich and authentic texts. Staff have carefully constructed a reading spine with texts for whole-class reading lessons that are pitched slightly above the independent reading ability of the children, offering challenge, opportunities to experience more difficult texts and to read forensically.
Across the course of the school year, children systematically access a wide range of literature: contemporary fiction, heritage fiction, picture books, novels, non-fiction texts and poetry. Some of these texts may link to the children’s creative theme work; many may not.
Teachers introduce a whole text, pivotal moments or challenging content by activating schema: creating links between what the child already knows and the text they are about to access. Lessons may also involve pre-teaching vocabulary and knowledge that children need to understand first to be able to access their reading. In nearly all guided reading lessons, children practice reading with fluency and expression. This can involve any number of collective reading aloud strategies:
- cloze reading, in which pupils follow text read by the teacher and fill in ‘gaps’ that they leave;
- choral reading, where pupils and staff read a passage aloud together;
- echo reading, in which key tricky sentences are modelled by the teacher and repeated by the children with similar intonation and rhythm.
- paired or group reading, with children reading to each other in small groups.
Teachers then plan activities to support children’s deeper understanding of their reading in a mixture of written and oral work. Teachers balance the level of children’s guided work with opportunities to work independently where appropriate, ensuring that activities are purposeful and give children chance to explore a range of reading skills.
Diagnostic assessment in reading is completed at the beginning of each term to inform teachers of children’s fluency, word reading and basic comprehension. This information is used to target intervention specifically. Summative assessments are completed at the end of each term and are used to inform the focus of first-wave teaching.
For further information about our English curriculum, please speak to Miss Laws.
Our governor with responsibility for Reading is Zesh Khan
