Reading
Intent
At Shaw Cross, we have a positive reading culture, where reading is a high priority. We are committed to instilling an enjoyment and enthusiasm for books, with a view to children developing a life-long love of reading and literature. The characteristics of effective learning (EYFS) and our secrets of success (KS1) are interwoven into all we do and drive our curriculum. These good learning behaviours are fully embedded within the teaching of reading. We recognise the important role we have in laying the foundations for children learning to read. Children learn to read so that they can then read to learn. They need to be able to do this in order to succeed in all curricular areas throughout their school lives and into adulthood. We endeavour to ensure that the children themselves also understand the importance and purpose of reading.
We know it is fundamentally important that in order to become good readers our children have a good grasp of language comprehension and oracy, as we know that this is the foundation to both reading and writing. Early language and access to texts at home can be limited for some children and so this is a key focus for us in school. We strive to provide many opportunities for speaking and listening in school and encourage this at home. We also ensure that the children have access to many high-quality texts containing rich language and vocabulary which can then be modelled to them and read and discussed together. We want our children to read widely so that they are able to broaden their horizons to things outside their own, sometimes limited, experiences to enable them to develop culturally, emotionally, intellectually, socially and spiritually. Through this we aim to promote a deeper understanding and respect for others when their opinions may differ from themselves. We teach the children to reflect on different texts and uses of language and how this might make them feel or what it makes them think.
We believe that all children should be able to learn to read well quickly and intend to do this through our Essential Letters and Sounds (ELS) Systematic Synthetic Phonics Programme. We endeavour to teach children to recognise and blend phonemes and to recognising hard to read and spell words systematically through a repetitive programme. Children need to be resilient learners and practise these skills until they become more natural to them. Children with a good knowledge and application of phonics will become confident and fluent readers who can enjoy reading widely for pleasure and information.
We fully encourage children to interact with books and interpret meaning whenever we read to or with them in order to have a good understanding and to foster that love of reading that we strive for. We expect our children to show respect while listening to others read and when discussing their thoughts and opinions and to reflect on the thoughts and opinions of others.
We endeavour to fulfil our mission statement and work in close partnership with our children and their families. We acknowledge the huge importance of the role of families in supporting children’s reading development either by listening to children read or reading with/to them. This is actively encouraged through weekly reading records, but also through our ‘reading ladder’ reward scheme where pupils receive rewards and privileges for their efforts.
As a minimum offer, we prioritise reading in school with the intention that all children have access to the full content of reading within the statutory EYFS Framework and the Key Stage 1 National Curriculum, both as a subject in its own right, but also as a means of accessing other subjects across the curriculum.
Implementation
At Shaw Cross School, we provide a huge range of reading materials to motivate and inspire children to develop a life-long love of reading, including the use of ICT and eBooks. which children can access both within school and at home, thus developing a partnership in supporting our children.
All of our Literacy lessons are based on and immersed in high quality texts. We teach Literacy using the Power of Reading techniques where high-quality texts are revealed and analysed slowly and in detail. These texts are often then the starting points of our cross-curricular topics. Children are actively encouraged to read a range of texts around the topic they are studying, including fiction and non-fiction books which can be read to them or as they progress with their reading they can read themselves. These texts are from a wide range of genres to fit the different purposes of our literacy lessons and to expand the literacy diet of all our pupils.
Class reading displays showcase our favourite texts which are carefully selected to follow a theme of authors or text types and are received as a termly gift to inspire awe and wonder. They have a clear progression through school and allow for re-visiting authors and text types. Books in class libraries contain texts and authors that children have chosen themselves, therefore allowing them to follow their own interests. Every class has access to inviting, comfortable book areas to inspire children and engage them further in their reading, whether class based, in clearly defined reading rooms, in the outdoor provision or the peace garden. Reading is celebrated through photographs of our children engaged in their reading at school and at home being displayed within school and on the website, as well as through frequent reading challenges and rewards.
Our language rich environments are testament to the importance we place of developing oracy skills across the curriculum. All of our reading texts begin with a speaking focus, with many subsequence opportunities within units of work to develop and extend vocabulary. This can be found in more detail in our spoken language rationale.
We have a whole school progressive approach to using the Essential Letters and Sounds (ELS) Systematic, Synthetic Phonics Programme with vigour and fidelity to ensure that all children learn to read well quickly. This is taught during daily discrete lessons and throughout the day in the context of reading and writing. Pupils quickly become experts in the techniques, terminology and structure of the Programme. We actively encourage parental support by providing advice, a glossary of terminology and support videos for the pronunciation of pure sounds alongside weekly homework. There are regular assessment and recap and review opportunities. This enables our children to become resilient learners, and the exposure to quality first teaching, ensures most children are able to keep up with the programme. The regular assessment data enables us to quickly identify children who are at risk of falling behind and immediate intervention is put into place by the teacher during the lesson. Additional 1:1 intervention is provided where a need is identified. When children reach the end of the ELS programme they are taught the spelling, punctuation and grammar (SPAG) rules from the national curriculum in daily discrete lessons and throughout literacy lessons in context.
All children throughout school are provided with daily reading opportunities in line with expectations from the Early Years Framework, and the Key Stage 1 National Curriculum. This includes, guided reading, shared reading, reading for pleasure, class stories and reading in other subjects across the curriculum. Weekly phonetically decodable guided reading sessions use texts that are carefully matched to the ELS reading scheme. These are high quality books across a range of genre, contain rich and challenging vocabulary and engage and inspire our pupils in a varied reading diet at an appropriate phonetic level.
Our home reading scheme is also closely matched to ELS phonic stages, ensuring that our children can apply their phonic knowledge to appropriate levels of text. We have high expectations in engaging parents to support their child’s reading and in completing reading records. Children also have access to the ELS E-book library for additional books. We know some of our children do not have access to a wide range of texts at home, and therefore children have free access to a reading trolley, and also a weekly library book. These are not phonically decodable, but are books to read for pleasure, to aid comprehension and discussion and to further their literacy diet. This is made explicit to parents through videos, notices and labels on books.
When being introduced to texts during literacy lessons, we have a strong emphasis on developing understanding and comprehension skills to ensure children can interpret and explain their understanding. Children are encouraged to answer questions, to pose questions of their own, and to reflect upon and respect the responses of others. We develop these skills orally through Book Talk (discussion) or by giving a written response to comprehension questions. Children are encouraged to explain and give reasons for their answers, thoughts and opinions, using the text to support these. In Year 2, the more confident fluent readers take part in a Higher-Level Reading Group where they are able to read and discuss novels and are encouraged to explore, reflect on, and deepen their thinking and reasoning. For children who find reading more difficult we have the Project X Reading Intervention which helps them develop both their phonic and comprehension skills. The use of volunteers has also allowed some of our children who may not read as often at home, to read and interact with an adult.
Impact
Children at Shaw Cross develop a life-long love and enthusiasm for reading. They choose to read often and widely. Our ELS phonic scheme enables them to quickly learn to read, and as a result they see themselves as readers and are confident and fluent at reading. They understand the importance and purpose of reading and why they need to succeed at it.
Through reading a wide range of high-quality texts our children are on the road to building a varied and rich vocabulary. This will allow them to fully understand what they read and to express their thoughts and opinions fully whilst respecting and reflecting on the views of others. They become reflective learners who can read and learn about things outside of their own experiences and pursue their own interests, thus widening their understanding of others and the world around them. It opens them up to experiences and possibilities they may otherwise not have experienced. The various genre of texts that they read may challenge their own thoughts and opinions helping them to develop culturally, emotionally, intellectually, socially and spiritually.
Our children are holistic readers. This increases their exposure to text and their familiarity with and confidence in reading. They choose to read the books they enjoy wherever, whenever and with whoever they want to. They will know how to use their reading skills to find information they are interested in or to answer given questions or problems. Reading will be a life long skill and tool our children have to enable them to succeed throughout their school life and into their adulthood.
Reading is not barrier for most of our children but will be a gateway to their success. This success will enable them to engage fully in everyday lives as future citizens, and ensure that reading is not a limiting factor to them becoming whatever they want to be.
We ensure all children have access to the content of the EYFS curriculum and the National Curriculum for reading.
Click here for the EYFS curriculum.