Reading

Reading

At St Edward's Catholic Primary School, we use:

Children are not only learning comprehension skills but also independence, a love of wider reading and exposure to rich vocabulary, making this the backbone of all our lessons. Alongside reading being celebrated in classrooms, you will find displays around the school which celebrate children's favourite books and reading reward schemes (Accelerated Reader "AR" - Thermometers). In addition throughout the school year, reading is enhanced through World Book Day, Millionaire badges, parent phonic workshops, BoomReader milestones which enrich and complement children's learning. At St Edward's Catholic Primary School, we believe consistency and well taught English is the foundation of a valuable education therefore we ensure that the teaching of writing is purposeful, robust and shows clear progression for all children. The children understand that the more effective vocabulary will be found in the books that they are reading. Please read below to see how reading is accessed in all Key Stages.

Reading at Early Years

We begin the teaching of systematic phonics as soon as the children begin school in EYFS. At St Edward's we use Read Write Inc. as the single approach to teaching phonics. Children’s phonics knowledge is assessed every term and children are then put into smaller, bespoke groups to enable them to progress at the correct level. Any child who struggles to make progress will be given 1:1 phonics to help them to overcome their issues and make accelerated progress. This provision continues throughout Key Stage 1, ensuring every child can learn to read. Learning to decode fluently and accurately allows children to become confident readers and enables learners to access all the enjoyment and excitement books can bring. In addition to the direct and systematic teaching of word-reading knowledge and skills, children listen to books and stories designed to develop their comprehension skills, make links between books and develop their knowledge and understanding of the world around them.

Reading at Key Stage 1

In Year One and Two, the teaching of Read Write Inc. continues daily and is regularly monitored to ensure that each child’s ability is matched to their provision. At this stage, the children progress with their word-reading skills – both phonic decoding skills and the quick recognition of ‘common exception words’ (red words) to enhance levels of fluency, expression and reading stamina. In Year 2, learners are supported to develop key comprehension skills which include predicting, understanding vocabulary choices, retrieving information, summarising, making inferences and using evidence from the text to justify their responses. To continue the focus of phonics at home, all children are provided with a fiction/non-fiction Read Write Inc. text that matches their level of reading.

Reading at Key Stage 2

Reading in Key Stage Two continues to develop decoding, fluency and comprehension skills. Developing key reading skills through high-quality teaching is the priority for our children. In addition, studying whole texts in lessons – Novel Study - develops children’s love of reading by giving them the opportunity to read and listen to texts and authors they might not have chosen to read for themselves, also providing opportunities to encounter a wide variety of genres. We have daily guided reading comprehension sessions to ensure that children read age-related texts and answer V.I.P.E.R.S (Vocabulary, Inference, Predict, Explain, Retrieve and Summarise / Sequence) as our method to explicitly teach each skill, daily. These whole class or group reading comprehension sessions are used as a powerful tool to allow all children to make progress in reading and provide regular and supportive opportunities for children to encounter engaging texts that will resonate with their interests and capture their imagination. Carefully chosen questions allow for children to develop their comprehension skills at an appropriate level.

Education Endowment Fund (EEF) research indicates that reading comprehension approaches deliver an additional six months’ progress. Successful reading comprehension approaches allow activities to be carefully tailored to pupils’ reading capabilities and involve activities and texts that provide an effective, but not overwhelming, challenge.

Individual Reading

Once the children are on the RWi journey, they will bring two books home weekly. One book will be a RWI Fiction/Non-fiction book bag book that they have read in school. In Year 2, the children will bring home both a Fiction/Non-Fiction book bag book. They should try read this with expression and fluency. RWi book bag books have a similar theme and reading level to the level they are studying in class and will allow the children to practise their decoding skills. A further book (cuddle book) will be a book of their choice for parents to read with them and discuss. These books will be changed on a weekly basis.

When the children complete the RWI programme, they will move onto the Accelerated Reader programme. At this point, usually in the spring/summer term of Year 2, they will be assessed using the Star Reading assessment from Accelerated Reader to identify their reading age and ZPD level. Accelerated Reader is a computer program that helps teachers manage and monitor children’s independent reading practice. Children pick a book at their own level (from the library) monitored through the Star Reading assessments and Accelerated Reader programme, and read it at their own pace. When finished, children take a short quiz on the computer - passing the comprehension quiz is an indicator that they have understood what has been read. Accelerated Reader gives both children and teachers feedback based on the quiz results, which the teacher then uses to help the child set the correct targets for their reading, build a picture of their progress and support children with their book choices.