English
Reading and writing
Intent
We aim for the children to be able to:
- Read easily, fluently and with good understanding
- Choose to read widely and often, both for pleasure and to learn from their reading
- Acquire a deep and broad vocabulary
- Appreciate a range of texts
- Use their reading to inform their writing
- Take part in discussions which deepen understanding, help them to learn and shape their opinions
- Understand what they have read by reading strategically
At Roberts we intend for every child to become a fluent, confident reader. We believe that with the right teaching and the right texts, every child can become a reader.
Key Components of our Reading Curriculum
- Phonics
- Daily Read Aloud
- Reading Comprehension
- Fluency
- Vocabulary
- Quality texts
How does reading teach British Values?
- Democracy
- The rule of law
- Individual liberty
- Mutual respect for and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs
At Roberts, the texts that make up the reading curriculum provide opportunities to teach themes of tolerance, mutual respect and democracy. For example, in texts such as ‘Floodland’ children explore the concept of democracy, ‘Wild Robot’ explores themes including mutual respect whilst ‘Fox Girl and the White Gazelle’ and ‘Front Desk’ spark important conversations regarding tolerance, discrimination and diversity.
Furthermore, non-fiction texts have been carefully mapped to teach children about the British Values. For example, the rule of law is explored when children study a non-fiction text about Crime and Punishment whilst individual liberty is explored through texts such as ‘How to Change the World’.
Texts are also mapped so that children explore other cultures and use their reading as a basis for discussion about diversity, tolerance and discrimination.
Implementation
Early Reading
At Roberts we know that it is essential that children learn to read accurately and automatically with appropriate fluency. Systematic, synthetic phonics is key to this. Therefore, Roberts use the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised to teach early reading. We start teaching phonics in Nursery/Reception and follow the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised progression, which ensures children build on their growing knowledge of the alphabetic code and develop the skills of segmenting, blending and phoneme manipulation.
We teach phonics for 30 minutes a day. In Reception, we build from 10-minute lessons, with additional daily oral blending games, to the full-length lesson as quickly as possible. Each Friday, we review the week’s teaching to help children become fluent readers.
In Reception are taught to read and spell words using Phase 2 and 3 GPCs, and words with adjacent consonants (Phase 4) with fluency and accuracy.
Children in Year 1 review Phases 3 and 4 and are taught to read and spell words using Phase 5 GPCs with fluency and accuracy.
Children are then taught to apply their phonics knowledge and skills during reading practice sessions. There are three reading practice sessions a week. These sessions are delivered to small groups of children by full trained adults. The Little Wandle Assessment Tracker is used alongside teacher assessment to select texts which are appropriately matched to children’s current phonics attainment.
The reading practice sessions have been designed to focus on three key reading skills:
o decoding
o prosody: teaching children to read with understanding and expression
o comprehension: teaching children to understand the text.
At the end of each week, children take home the book they have practised with to read to an adult at home.
As well as word reading, language comprehension is also taught. Children are read to daily by an adult and participate in book talk conversations, discussing their likes, dislikes, puzzles and predictions. In Year 2 children review Phase 5 content and then progress to the Little Wandle Fluency programme.
Reading in Key Stage 2
In Key Stage 2 children have daily reading lessons. The teaching of reading is based upon research and evidence informed practice into the teaching of comprehension, fluency and vocabulary.
Children are generally taught as a whole class; however, teachers will will use their assessment for learning to teach in groups and 1-1 as necessary.
In Key Stage 2, comprehension strategies are taught so that children can read strategically. Children also engage in discussions about their reading. They are taught to think deeply about their reading and engage in discussions with their peers and adults about what they have read.
The reading curriculum has been planned to ensure that there are a variety of representations in the literature that children read, as well as a balance of poetry, non-fiction and fiction. Furthermore, non-fiction texts have been selected to develop children’s background knowledge, deepen their understanding of fiction texts and develop their knowledge of how expository texts are structured. Texts are deliberately challenging so that they are worthy of deep discussion and investigation and shape children as readers and citizens.
Impact
Reading will be assessed by:
- NFER Termly Assessments. Results are inputted and are tracked by the leadership team, analysed and explored further during Pupil Progress Meetings and used to set intervention groups and targets.
- Dibels Oral Reading Fluency Assessments
- Herts for Learning Fluency Project analysis
- Little Wandle Assessments
- Phonics Screen Check Results
- Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 SATs
- Pupil voice and surveys
- Quality Assurance of reading by English Lead during data entry periods
Reading for Pleasure
At Roberts we use evidence to inform our practice. The Open University Reading for Pleasure research will be used by staff to develop our reading culture. At present, we are redesigning our library spaces and purchasing a huge amount of new books to ensure that every child has access to texts that will help make them readers.
We have a dedicated group of Reading Ambassadors who work closely with Miss Beddoes to make choices regarding reading material, reading spaces and how to promote a lot of reading throughout school.
The following websites are all great sources of inspiration to help you find the right books for your child:
The Reader Teacher
https://www.thereaderteacher.com/
Books for Topics
https://www.booksfortopics.com/
CLPE
https://clpe.org.uk/books/booklists
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