READING AT GOLDSTONE
We aim for all children to be enthusiastic lifelong readers, achieved through high-quality teaching of reading across the school. Children will have access to high-quality texts which will help them to find pleasure in reading. Reading will be valued within the school; children will be encouraged to share their reading with peers and adults – talking about their likes and dislikes of a variety of texts. Parents will be engaged in reading partnerships that start in the Nursery and are maintained throughout their child's learning journey in school. We aim to celebrate reading, showing that it is an enjoyable and important life skill. Our aim is for all children to enjoy reading and to feel successful at it. We are proud to share that our most recent Ofsted report (July 2023) stated that at Goldstone "Reading is at the heart of the curriculum."
Intent
At Goldstone Primary School, we firmly believe that reading is an essential skill which allows the children to fully access all areas of the curriculum. We aim to develop pupils’ ability, interests and enjoyment of reading through an integrated approach. Reading is a vitally important aspect of both school, and home life and a love of reading opens up new worlds and possibilities.
We particularly want the children to develop a love of books which they carry with them into adult life.
“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go.” Dr Seuss
In order for pupils to develop into effective and confident readers, they need to develop and use a range of reading strategies. By providing the children with a range of strategies, we equip them with the skills required to read accurately, understand what they read and gain enjoyment from their chosen texts. We follow the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised DfE validated Systematic Synthetic phonics Programme (SSP) for daily phonics and 'Reading Practice' sessions in EYFS, KS1 and for children requiring phonics support in KS2. (Please see Phonics and Early Reading Policy- Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised 2022 for further detail.)
Aims and objectives
By adopting a consistent approach to the teaching of reading, linked to the National Curriculum, we aim for the children to develop the skills and confidence to read across all subject areas.
In doing so we aim that children:
· Will be taught the essential skills of reading.
· Will enjoy a wide variety of texts including fiction, non-fiction and poetry.
· Will become independent readers and transfer these skills across the curriculum.
· Will be prepared for their next stage of education.
· Will become critical, life-long readers and learners.
At Goldstone Primary School, we understand that children have different learning needs; therefore throughout the school, children are exposed to a wide range of reading strategies to support their reading development.
Implementation
In our school children experience a range of picture books and then chapter books which are shared with the class teacher. We have a Goldstone Reading Spine of quality texts that all children will encounter as they move through school. We also have author boxes in Key Stage One so children can become familiar with a range of texts by the same author. There are books available in classroom reading corners for children to read and enjoy for pleasure. We also have a school library where children can borrow books from. We often have visits from children’s authors and celebrate many reading events.
In Reception and Year 1 reading is taught through daily phonics sessions and 3 x weekly 'Reading Practice' sessions. Children’s reading books are matched to their phonic level and are fully decodable. These decodable books are read in class 3 times a week with a focus for each session. Each session begins with reading the focus sounds and words from the text. The first session of the week focuses on decoding with children using the sounds they know to read the words. The next session focuses on prosody. This involves making the reading sound good, and adding and building fluency. The final session focuses on comprehension where children build their vocabulary and answer questions to demonstrate their understanding. After the three reading sessions, the books are taken home to be read. The children also take a sharing book home which is one they have chosen to enjoy listening to or sharing with someone at home.
In Year 2 some children will continue to have phonics teaching and 3 x weekly reading practice sessions. Other children will move on to reading banded books. These children will read twice weekly to an adult in class. Children either take home books at their phonic phase or banded level. They also take home books to share.
Throughout Key Stage1 each reading group will have one session a week where they have access to the class book corner or an author box to read freely, developing reading for pleasure.
In KS2, the teacher facilitates one group whilst the other children in the class engage in a range of reading activities, usually follow-up reading tasks, pre-reading and creating some questions of their own. Each group has one session in the book corner to read a book of choice and continue to develop reading for pleasure. As the children become more confident, they begin to facilitate part of or whole sessions.
In KS2 we have access to phonically decodable books, banded books, groups of reading texts in sets and sets of books related to our topics where appropriate, that can be read within the guided reading session.
Across the school, to support our reading for pleasure culture, the teachers read for 10 minutes every day to the class. These are often books from our Goldstone Reading Spine, but we also supplement the books with class-chosen books. As we go into KS2, the books become more complex and longer reads.
Impact
In Reception and Year 1 children are assessed on their phonic knowledge every half term. This is used to inform which phonically decodable books they should read. Each reading session is recorded on group record sheets with comments made against each area of focus and the appropriate age related expectations.
In Year 2 and Key Stage 2 some children will continue to have phonics assessments if needed. Reading is assessed against Reading VIPERs focusing on the different domains of the National Curriculum. Teachers and TAs will also use assessment for learning and termly Rising Stars reading assessments to assess against age related expectations.
We begin with:
Strategies for learning to read
Please refer to our Phonics and Early Reading Policy
Planning for Reading Practice sessions
Reading at Goldstone Primary is taught through daily phonics sessions and 3 x weekly Reading Practice sessions in EYFS and Y1, or a daily reading practice session in Y2 and KS2.
Y2 and KS2 children still requiring phonics support will continue to have 3 x weekly Reading Practice sessions at their phonic level.
Home school partnerships
We work hard to foster successful home- school reading partnerships with all of our families:
- Weekly family reading sessions in EYFS and KS1 every week.
- We use home reading diaries across the schools.
- We hold reading events for all new parents to the school with our EYFS parent’s information evenings demonstrating how we teach reading and how the reading in EYFS feeds into the reading in KS1 and KS2 and beyond.
- We encourage all families to visit local libraries and encourage all children to participate in the Summer Reading Challenge.
Events
Regular reading events are held in school to celebrate our love of reading:
- Many authors visit school regularly. We are lucky to have a very positive relationship with a local independent book shop – The Book Nook.
- We/they organise various author visits for children across the school through the year.
- We have reading celebration evenings – How to Train your Dragon/Northern Lights Book nights (KS2) and Julia Donaldson (KS1).
- We celebrate World Book Day annually.
- We take part in the Summer Reading Challenge organised by the city libraries.
- We have a well-stocked library which all classes have the opportunity to visit and learn about library learning and behaviour.
