Reading

 

Seven Aspects of Reading

How do we make sure that reading is at the heart of our school?

• Each classroom has a selection of high-quality books as a mini library with a selection of fiction, non-fiction and poetry. They are given a ‘Recommended Reads’ book for their year group each year and a selection of these books has been put into each class collection of individual readers.
• A designated reading area, promotes a love of books.
• We endeavour to use books and high-quality texts to enrich learning and provide access to a range of genres.
• Our Library Champion (with help from our Senior and Junior Librarians) organises non-fiction book baskets for each classroom, full of high-quality texts linked to the current units of work. These baskets of books are available to each class, encouraging children to read widely and to make links between their reading and the wider curriculum.
• As part of immersing children in quality texts, each year group has a reading map of fiction books that are read to both classes. Over their journey through the school, we have ensured that these texts will allow all children to experience a range of genres/text types, that reflect local culture and global diversity.
• Teachers model the excitement that reading/story-telling brings when reading aloud.
• Our school library is full of high- quality books selected by our Library Champion to reflect our units of work, children’s interests, our local environment and our place in the world as global citizens.
• We encourage our children to use our school library on a weekly basis and to visit the local library.
• Children are encouraged to talk about their reading and share recommendations to others.
• We work in partnership with parents to model and share good practice around developing reading.
• In Foundation and Year 1, pupils take part in ‘Reading Practice Sessions’, three times a week – developing decoding skills, prosody and reading comprehension, reading the same text over a sequence of days.
• Children from Year 2 upwards take part in daily whole class reading sessions. These are 45 minutes long and focus on the VIPERS reading domains.
• Pupils who need extra support with their reading are given reading interventions/extra reading opportunities.
• Daily phonics sessions following the Little Wandle Systematic Synthetic Phonics Programme enable children to develop their phonic knowledge and decoding skills in Foundation and Year 1. (See ‘Phonics and Early Reading Implementation and Rationale Documents’).
• Once they have developed their knowledge of grapheme/phoneme correspondence and decoding skills, they read from texts that are matched to their phonic ability and are fully decodable.
• Pupils who are learning phonics in Foundation and Year 1, take home a decodable book and a ‘Sharing Book’ to encourage reading for pleasure.

How do we promote a love of reading?

• Children in every year group are exposed to a selection of high-quality texts, both as whole class readers and in whole class reading comprehension sessions. These texts have been chosen with care – taken from a range of genres/text types and reflecting local culture and global diversity.
• All staff are expert readers, modelling reading skills, discussing texts read with the pupils and sharing their own love of reading.
• Teachers model the excitement that reading/story-telling brings when reading aloud – immersing them in the world of books.
• Our learning opportunities incorporate a range of fiction, non-fiction and poetry, to expose pupils to different texts they may enjoy.
• Whole class reading sessions allow all pupils to share books together with adults and their peers – discussing their reading, helping them to make sense of what they have read and to share their thoughts and ideas about it.
• Pupils are encouraged to access the library and change books on a regular basis. Our Library Champion organises weekly ‘Library Lunches’ allowing children to meet with other children with a passion for books and share their love of reading.
• Through ‘Book Club’ sessions, we encourage pupils in each class to share their love of reading e.g. by inviting them to recommend great reads to their peers or by introducing them to new authors and poets.
• We celebrate World Book Day (extending the celebrations to last a week) with events planned around the school and in each class. After school book fairs promote a love of books by bringing high quality texts to our children.

How do we make sure children make progress?

• Phonics is taught from Nursery to Year 1, following the Little Wandle progression to ensure a systematic approach. Phonics lessons in Foundation and Year 1 follow the same sequence of teach, practise, revise, review and apply. Planning includes assessment for the graphemes taught. Phonics is continually assessed to identify gaps which are addressed the same day.
• In Foundation, Year 1  each class has a daily dedicated phonics session.
• In Foundation and Year 1, each child has a ‘Reading Practice Session’ three times a week focusing on decoding, prosody and comprehension.
• Across the school, pupils are supported in becoming expert readers by developing the key reading domains of understanding vocabulary, making inferences, explaining, retrieving, summarising/sequencing and predicting. In Year 1 and Year 2 these domains are explicitly taught using the dogs from ‘The Pawsome Gang’ and in Key Stage 2 children are taught these domains using VIPERS. Year 3, transition from the ‘Pawsome Gang’ into using VIPERS as they continue their reading journey into Key Stage 2. In this way there is a clear progression of reading skills from Nursery to Year 6 against which pupils’ progress is measured and interventions are swiftly put in place to support rapid progress.
• Pupils who are less confident with decoding skills (preventing them from accessing reading material) have targeted interventions such as Little Wandle Rapid Catch Up.
• Pupils who need extra reading practice, are given further opportunities to read with an adult in school.
• Whole school termly data collection enables staff and senior leaders to track progress from EYFS through to Year 6.
• Staff have tracking meetings where support for children is discussed.

How do we match the children’s books to their reading ability?

• In the Early Years Foundation Stage, children begin their reading journey with wordless books to establish book behaviours, book talk and to grow vocabulary.
• From this point onwards, regular half-termly assessment ensures that books are matched to children’s phonic knowledge.
• Interventions are put in place as soon as the assessments are complete to ensure that children receive ‘Keep-Up/ Rapid Catch-Up support’ and their progress is rigorously monitored.
• Children’s love of reading will be encouraged simultaneously through the ‘sharing books’ that they bring home to read/enjoy with their families.
• Reading practice sessions and whole class reading ensure that children are developing both their reading fluency and comprehension.
• Accelerated Reader is being introduced. As part of this programme children will have 1/2 termly online assessments which will identify their confidence banding, ensuring that their Accelerated Reader book is matched to their ability.

How do we teach phonics from the start?

• We teach phonics through the ‘Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised’ phonics programme (See ‘Phonics and Early Reading Implementation Document’).
• From the very start, in the Nursery, there is a key focus on speaking and listening. Children are taught to tune into and talk about sounds, to support the development of their auditory memory, develop their vocabulary, language comprehension and oral blending skills. This lays the foundations for children to develop their knowledge of grapheme/phoneme correspondences in Foundation, Year 1 and Year 2, and the skills to segment and blend sounds to read and write words.
• The teaching of phonics is rigorous, systematic, pacey and consistent.

How do we support pupils to catch up?

• Our robust assessments ensure the children read decodable books that match their phonics level, enabling them to become confident, fluent readers.
• In Foundation and Year 1, trained staff use the ‘Little Wandle Keep-Up Materials’ to provide regular intervention.
• Children needing additional support are quickly identified and regular bespoke interventions are put in place to ensure rapid progress. In Years 2 and 3, children who are not meeting age related expectations for reading, are supported using the Little Wandle Rapid Catch-Up 7+
• Pupils who are less confident with decoding skills (preventing them from accessing reading material) have targeted interventions or are part of a smaller reading group.
• Pupils who need further opportunity to practise reading, are given priority to read to an adult in school.

How do we train staff to be reading experts?

• Teaching staff, including Teaching Assistants are trained using the Little Wandle training materials. Training needs are identified through Performance Management and monitoring.
• The Headteacher and the Literacy Team monitor reading sessions and conduct pupil conferencing to ensure agreed approaches and consistency are applied across the school.
• The Headteacher and Literacy Team monitor the teaching of phonics and reading, identify priorities for development and the impact of training.

Parc Eglos Reading rationale and journey

At Parc Eglos, we know that in order to help children become confident, passionate readers, it is essential that they are immersed in high quality texts from EYFS to Year 6. In order to ensure that our children have a rich reading journey through the school, we have agreed key criteria which are used when selecting texts. As well as this, we have developed a clear reading rationale for each year group’s approach to whole class texts and reading comprehension sessions and use a Parc Eglos/Crofty MAT Reading Domains Progression. By ensuring that all our children have the opportunity to experience and explore carefully selected texts in a progressive way across the school, we believe that we will have given them the best of starts on their journey to becoming lifelong readers whose lives and learning are enriched by books.

Phonics and Early Reading Rationale

At Parc Eglos School, we understand that in order to achieve our aspiration of sparking a light for every child in reading, phonics is the first fundamental step on the ladder to becoming a confident, fluent and enthusiastic reader and writer. Alongside the teaching of phonics, we are passionate that all children should develop a love of books, through the sharing of carefully selected, high-quality stories and rhymes.

We teach phonics from the very start, through the ‘Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised’ systematic, synthetic phonics programme, which is validated by the Department for Education.  Our Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum ensures that children from the age of two years old, are engaged in speaking and listening activities which support their ability to tune into sounds, to develop their auditory memory and to talk about sounds.  Our staff continuously support the development and acquisition of new vocabulary and language comprehension skills, through our high-quality teaching and learning environments.  We ensure that communication friendly spaces are at the heart of our Early Years Provision.

As effective response partners, our staff support the development of children’s phonemic awareness, planning for next steps in their learning using observation and assessment. They provide a carefully planned balance of adult-led activities, and enhanced provocations through the enabling environment to support child-initiated experiences.

Being able to tune into sounds and being confident in their oral blending skills, ensures that our children are well prepared to begin learning grapheme-phoneme correspondences (GPCs) and to learn to blend sounds to read words in Foundation.   Staff continue to ensure children build on their growing knowledge of the alphabetic code, through high quality teaching and adult modelling, for example through shared reading and writing across the curriculum.

In Foundation and in Year 1, children are taught phonics through a dedicated daily phonics teaching session. In Foundation, children are taught phases 2, 3 and 4 (Please click here for Little Wandle Letter and Sounds Revised 2021: Programme Progression Foundation and Year 1 overviews).  In the Autumn Term of Year 1, children revisit phases 3 and 4, and then move swiftly into learning the phase 5 alternative GPC’s. All children learn how to read and spell decodable and tricky words (high frequency words that they haven’t yet learned how to decode in their phonics phase).  By the Spring Term of Year 1, we encourage children to begin to use the ‘Grow the Code Chart’ in their reading and spelling of words.

Children further apply their phonic knowledge in the three reading practice sessions per week, supported by our fully trained members of staff. The sessions focus on developing decoding skills, prosody and reading comprehension by reading the same text over a sequence of days. Children take a copy of their book home and we work in partnership with parents to promote a love of reading from a book which is familiar to them.

In the early stages, wordless books enable children to establish book behaviours, promote talk about books and support the development of vocabulary.  Once children are able to blend the phonemes they have learned, they read from texts that are carefully matched to their phonic knowledge and are fully decodable. Children visit the school library weekly, to choose a ‘Sharing Book’ to take home to read with their families, which encourages reading for pleasure.

At Parc Eglos school, we greatly value our partnership with parents.  In Foundation and Year 1, teachers deliver reading information sessions and provide a reading record for parents to share their observations of their child’s reading.  Further materials and information (including resources to support children’s learning of GPCs, blending, tricky words, vocabulary and spellings) are regularly shared with parents and carers throughout the year, to support their child’s reading development at home.

Our rigorous assessment, and tracking of pupil progress, ensures that our teaching staff are able to quickly identify and provide ‘keep-up’ interventions to enable children to make rapid progress from their starting points. We have a strong focus on language development for our children because we know that speaking and listening are crucial skills for reading and writing in all subjects.

In the Summer Term of year 1, children undertake a statutory assessment of their phonic knowledge; the Phonics Screening Check.  If a child does not meet age related expectations at this stage, they will continue to be supported in their transition into Year 2, where the ‘Keep Up’ and ‘Rapid Catch-Up’ support programmes will continue to provide targeted support for children to secure their phonic knowledge and fluency in reading.

In Year 2, during the Autumn Term, we currently revise and teach phonics and reading with the whole class using the main programme of study from Phase 5 of Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised.  This enables children to develop their decoding skills to ensure that all children in Year 2 are able to read with fluency.  Where some children have been identified as not secure in Phases 2, and/or 3, individual and group Keep-Up sessions are scheduled with a highly trained teacher, as a high priority.  Children requiring Phase 4 Keep-Up continue to work with the whole class revision of Phase 5, and have additional Phase 4 Keep-Up to support blending and reading with automaticity.  These children are assessed every 3 weeks to ensure that progress is made, and enable them to progress to Phase 5.

All Keep-Up children continue to follow the reading practice model from Foundation and Year 1, whereby they read a phonetically matched decodable book to an adult in school three times a week.  When children are confidently reading Phase 5 Set 3 books onwards, they are assessed using the appropriate fluency assessment.  In Year 2, children are ready to exit the programme when they can read the Phase 5 Set 5 fluency assessment at 90+ words per minute with a good rate of accuracy.  Once children have exited the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised programme, they will move across to Book Band colours, beginning at Purple.

In the Spring Term, any children who have not exited the programme, begin using the Rapid Catch-Up 7+ content at the recommended phase.  Children working on this programme are assessed every four weeks to ensure that rapid progress is made to enable them to read fluently, confidently and with a love of books.

Rapid Catch-Up 7+

Children in Key Stage 2 who are not reading at age-related expectations are identified and given urgent targeted support so that they can access the curriculum and enjoy reading as soon as possible.  These children work from the Rapid Catch-Up 7+ Programme which mirrors the main phonics programme but at a faster pace.

Children are assessed and this determines which phase they are taught.   Children are taught three phonics/spelling and reading practice sessions each week, and are re-assessed after four weeks.

The children gain enormous benefit from the reading practice sessions: they learn to use their phonic knowledge to read longer words and challenging texts. Children read each book three times in the reading practice sessions to help them gain fluency. Each read has a specific focus:

• Read 1: decoding
• Read 2: prosody
• Read 3: comprehension

Reading 7+ books

The Big Cat for Little Wandle 7+ books are specifically designed with older readers in mind, and include extra content that supports and extends the children’s thinking, whilst exploring the different reading domains.

Children are ready to exit the programme when they are able to read Phase 5 Set 5 Books at 90+ words per minute, with a good level of accuracy.  They will progress to reading book band books from Purple and beyond.

Criteria for selecting text for use in class

Links possible with meaningful experiences?

The book/text should help children connect with who they are or help children to understand the lives of people whose experiences and perspectives may be different from their own.

Interesting and engaging?

A quality children’s book is likely to hold your attention in several ways: through the creative use of language, the engaging characters and storyline, and/or the effective use of illustrations. It should elicit a strong response – curiosity, anger, excitement, laughter, empathy.

Support strong narrative?

Many writers suggest that storytelling is a fundamental part of our identity as human beings. Story helps us to make sense of ourselves, other people, and the world around us. Does the book/text do this? For picture books – is it engaging enough to sustain multiple readings?

Provide diversity?                                                                                  

Is our selection of texts across the year (and across the school) diverse in terms of the following: genre, traditional v contemporary, cultural, character voice/background/experience – male and female, young and old, and a wide range of cultures, in historical contemporary and imaginary settings.

Accessible to all?                                                                               

This is as much to do with knowledge and historical/cultural understanding as it is to do with decoding ability. Do your children have the understanding necessary to full engage with the text? For example, if the text requires an understanding of the circumstances/lives of ordinary people in Germany during World War ll – do your class have this? If your class need to understand what a refugee is – do they? This is how linking texts to previous (rather than current) learning can really enrich their understanding of the text.

Distinctive/playful/memorable?

Some authors write in a style or ‘voice’ that stays with the reader long after the book has finished. Sometimes, to achieve this, authors break rules. This can become a discussion point with children – seeing how writers choose to use grammar and punctuation reminds children that they have choices to make in learning to write well. Some authors play with words, the story, and the reader. This creates an experience, in itself, that children can use to develop their own writing.

Thought provoking\challenging?                                                                                                                               

Does the book/text have intellectual merit? Do the ideas and issues explored in the texts, in addition to being appropriate to the relevant age-group, raise interesting issues and providing challenging ideas.

Embody the craft of writing?                                                                                  

Does the text offer a chance for children to appreciate the craft of writing? Is there an element of the way the text is structured that could be interesting or the use of a particular language feature or use of vocabulary? Something where you can, together, appreciate what the writer has done, how they have done it, the possible reason and the impact on the reader.               

Parc Eglos Year Group Rationale for Reading/Text Selection

In our Nursery we carefully choose our stories to ensure they engage the children, ignite curiosity, and spark children’s creativity and imagination. The books we share are rich in language and rhyme and promote a love of books. Our chosen books ensure that the children can re-tell simple stories; they include traditional tales, stories and rhymes with repetitive phrases and key vocabulary. The books evoke feelings of awe and wonder and open the doors to new and exciting experiences.

In Reception we build on the foundations from Nursery and continue to provide children with opportunities to explore and learn language rich stories and rhymes. Books are central to our learning, with a weekly book focus that links to our topic. The children also enjoy story books with a maths focus and daily stories which allow them to listen and explore a range of exciting and engaging books which continue to help develop a life-long love of reading.

In Year 1, our core narrative books have been carefully chosen to generate meaningful discussion around events, settings and characters.  They build upon the reading from Nursery and Foundation, allowing children to explore a wider range of genre such as adventure, mystery, fantasy, other cultures, and alternative traditional tales.  Our non-fiction books enhance half-termly subjects based on history; explorers, geography; weather, seasons, locality, the seaside, and science; plants, animals, materials and their properties.  These books give children a wealth of opportunities to explore, question and explain.  All of our books are chosen to broaden children’s vocabulary, and continue to develop their love of reading.

As children continue their journey into and through Year 2, texts are selected to ensure that they continue to develop their passion for books and reading. Core narrative/story books are chosen to build on/develop the increasing range of genres they explored in Year 1 whilst also developing their stamina for listening to and enjoying longer texts – such a short chapter stories. These stories introduce the children to the fiction of classic authors (such as Roald Dahl and Dick King-Smith) who the children will meet again, and whose work they will develop familiarity with on their journey through Key Stage 2. Exposure to a diverse range of high quality books/texts ensures that children increase their vocabulary and, through class discussion/work in The Pawsome Gang sessions, develop their comprehension strategies ready for their transition into Key Stage 2.

In Year 3, children further build on their love of reading through the selection of age-appropriate books which are high quality and engaging (promoting reading for pleasure) but also begin to challenge the children in terms of ideas, style and complexity. Sharing texts as a whole class enables our pupils to continue the journey started in Key stage 1, to read aloud with prosody, whilst also having the opportunity to hear a rich and varied vocabulary. In their class and VIPERS texts, children have exposure to stories, poetry, play scripts and non-fiction with an increased emphasis placed on sharing, discussing and justifying views and opinions drawing on their understanding of the text. Texts chosen also enable them, through discussion, to begin to develop an appreciation for the craft of writing and to begin to develop their own tastes/passion as to author style, genre, subject matter as their reading confidence develops.

In Year 4, high quality teaching focussing on high quality texts is used continue to develop our children’s vocabulary as well as the breadth and depth of their reading – making sure that they become independent, fluent and enthusiastic readers who read widely, frequently and have a love of reading. Building on the authors explored in previous years, the children hear/read age appropriate texts and extracts from the same authors, developing familiarity with their bodies of work and author style. They also continue to be exposed to the work of newer authors (modern classics) from diverse genres/text types. To develop their reading comprehension, through VIPERS sessions, our children learn how to explore and analyse the language, structure and content of texts and develop the skills and strategies to discuss these, using the text to justify their thoughts, ideas and opinions. Building on the premise of Key Stage 1, all children have exposure to stories, poetry, play scripts and non-fiction texts but of an increasingly complex nature (in both content and style) in preparation for the sophistication of texts they will meet in Years 5 and 6.

In Year 5, the children continue to explore diverse genres of reading and text type, reading with prosody and making conscious choices when reading aloud as to how they will use elements such as tone, pace, volume, pausing etc. to communicate their understanding of a text. They continue to treasure vocabulary – independently using dictionaries to find out the meanings of new words and actively collecting them into their ‘Writer’s Notebooks’ to use in their writing. Building on their work in Year 4, in VIPERS sessions, the use of carefully selected, high quality texts enables children to explore writer choices in terms of vocabulary, structure and grammatical features with increased awareness of writer craft and the connotations of language. There is an increased focus on authorial intent, the way that this intent impacts on the choices writers make in terms of language and structure and, in turn, the impact these choices have on their reader. The extracts, poems and non-fiction texts used in VIPERS sessions are also chosen to be engaging, further encouraging a love of reading – as are our core class novels.

In Year 6, as the children enter the final year of their reading journey through our school, they continue to explore all genres, reading with accuracy, fluency and prosody. Texts are carefully selected to promote a love of reading through experiencing a rich range of text types and genres. These include contemporary fiction, well-loved authors and the classics, through to poetry, information texts, instructions, persuasion and other non-fiction texts types. We aim to select texts which will spark discussion, stretch and encourage critical thinking and are touching and thought provoking. Whole class texts are chosen to be immersive – with memorable characters, evocative descriptions and plots which offer different viewpoints whilst providing challenge both in their increased complexity and in their exploration of social issues. All texts are chosen to be engaging and to promote a love of reading, with children encouraged to develop their own preferences as a reader and to discuss/share these with their peers. In VIPERS the texts chosen, and questions asked, will increase in complexity and there is a shift towards increasing depth/longer answers preparing children for their SATs at the end of Year 6.  To this end, the skills and strategies taught throughout their journey, from EYFS to their final year in school, will be built upon to enable our pupils to respond confidently to texts with evidence and reasoning.

Please click here for Parc Eglos (Crofty) Reading Domain Progression by year group.

Please click for the KS2 Text Map of texts used in whole class reading

Phonics and Early Reading Implementation