Reading

Intent

Reading Overview

At Robert Arkenstall, our priority is both the teaching of reading skills and the enjoyment of literature, enabling children to become lifelong, confident readers. We aim to foster a love of reading and we encourage children to read a wide range of books both at school, and at home. All children have access to our wonderful school library and each classroom has carefully selected books from it to compliment the attainment and needs of our pupils. We do our best to refresh the books on offer to ensure all of our children have a varied and rich reading diet. We have high expectations of children and the progression of their reading skills. Therefore, we offer as many opportunities for reading as we can. This may happen in English lessons or across the wider curriculum. We believe that high-quality literature is the key to motivating children to read and instilling in children a love of literature. Because of this, we also ensure we read a class book to our children each and every day.

Implementation

Reading in KS1

As children begin to read, we focus on decoding, primarily through phonics in addition to other strategies, e.g. whole word recognition, rhyme and context. Children’s reading ability is developed during guided reading sessions, and specific reading objectives from the National Curriculum Programme of Study (PoS) may also be covered in text-based units of work during English lessons.

As children build fluency, comprehension skills become our main area of focus. At Robert Arkenstall, in Key Stage 1 we use content domains to scaffold and support our pupils learning five fundamental skills of reading:

To draw on knowledge of vocabulary to understand texts.
To identify/explain key aspects of fiction and non-fiction texts, such as characters, events, titles and information.
To identify and explain the sequence of events in texts.
To make inferences from the text.
To predict what might happen on the basis of what has been read so far.

The reading objectives from the National Curriculum PoS for KS1 are mapped to each content domain to ensure the skills are referred to and practised regularly and that the National Curriculum PoS is covered extensively, giving children opportunity to consolidate and extend their skills.

Children take home books from a book banded system, which give children the opportunity to practise the sounds they have already learnt during discrete phonic sessions. KS1 classrooms are also equipped with an excellent range of fiction, non-fiction and poetry books to allow pupils to read for pleasure and increase their reading diet with an exciting range of engaging texts and authors to choose from.

Teachers and teaching assistants assess children's progression in early reading regularly using the ‘PM Benchmark’ scheme. A percentage result and response to comprehension questions indicate whether the child is secure at that level and thus ready to move up. Children progress through our colour book banded system, with an aim to be ‘off the scheme’ by the end of Year 2. Children’s reading progress is also assessed using a formal written paper to identify their attainment against the key reading skills outlined above.

Reading in KS2

During KS2, we continue to promote a passion for reading. Children’s reading ability is developed during whole class reading sessions, and specific reading objectives from the National Curriculum Programme of Study (PoS) may also be covered in text-based units of work during English lessons.

Fluency continues to be developed and monitored, particularly for children not reading age appropriate texts and comprehension skills are extended. In KS2 we continue to use content domains to support our pupils learning, but increase children’s exposure to seven fundamental skills of reading:

To give/explain the meaning of words in context.
To retrieve and record information/identify key details from fiction and non-fiction.
To summarise main ideas from more than one paragraph.
To make inferences from the text/explain and justify inferences with evidence from the text.
To predict what might happen from details stated and implied.
To identify/explain how information/narrative content is related and contributes to meaning as a whole.
To identify/explain how meaning is enhanced through choice of words and phrases.
To make comparisons within the text.

The reading objectives from the National Curriculum PoS for KS2 are mapped to each content domain to ensure the skills are referred to and practised regularly and that the National Curriculum PoS is covered extensively, giving children opportunity to consolidate and extend their skills.

Children’s reading ability is assessed using Accelerated Reader Star Reader Tests to obtain a ZPD (Zone of Proximal Development) book level. Children use their ZPD to select books appropriate to their current reading attainment. After completing a book, children take a short online quiz to assess how well they read and understood the text. KS2 classrooms are equipped with an excellent range of fiction, non-fiction and poetry books to allow pupils to increase their reading diet with an exciting range of engaging texts and authors to choose from. Star Reader Tests are carried out throughout the year to track children’s progress in reading and ensure they are continuously given the right level of challenge. Children’s reading progress is also assessed using a formal written paper to identify their attainment against the key reading skills outlined previously. We use Pixl papers to assess, which gives us standardised scores which correlate to FFT scores to track progress and analyse gaps in understanding.

Home Reading and How Reading is Celebrated

Home reading is strongly encouraged with an expectation that children read at least five times weekly. In the EYFS and KS1, we ask that parents record instances of this inside their child’s Reading Record. We also encourage parents to question their children using question stems found inside their Reading Record. Children receive ‘Reading Milestone’ certificates based upon the number of ‘nights’ read to celebrate their commitment towards reading.

In Lower Key Stage Two (LKS2), children are encouraged to record their own comments in their Reading Record. We also encourage parents to question their children using the question stems found within their child’s Reading Record. Children receive ‘Reading Milestone’ certificates based upon the number of ‘nights’ read to celebrate their commitment towards reading.

In Upper Key Stage Two (UKS2) children are expected to read regularly, but there is no requirement for children to record comments within a Reading Record. Instead, we encourage children to autonomously read for pleasure and reflect upon the content they read as they read. Children receive Accelerated Reader (AR) certificates to celebrate their reading achievements and successes. Upper Key Stage 2 classes enjoy a friendly class rivalry on who reads the most words, with scores announced in assembly.

Key Points for Reading at Robert Arkenstall

The teaching of reading in the EYFS:

We use a schematic synthetic phonics programme.
We have a wide selection of early reading books available that are banded into the PM Benchmark scheme ‘colour steps’.
We also have a collection of phonetically decodable books linked to the early phases available.
Children are taught during shared and guided group reading using structured and repetitive ‘big books’, guided texts and short stories.
Teachers and teaching assistants also read on an individual basis with children as necessary: how often and who, is based upon assessment of progress.
A high-quality text is read to the children daily.

The teaching of reading in KS1:

We use a schematic synthetic phonics programme.
We have a wide selection of early reading books available that are banded into the PM Benchmark scheme ‘colour steps’.
We have ‘guided reading’ lessons.
Our guided reading lessons use ‘Reading Dogs’ (domains) to support the teaching of the national curriculum PoS and five fundamental reading skills.
The national curriculum PoS objectives may also be covered during English units of work.
A high-quality text is read to the children daily.

The teaching of reading in KS2:

We have ‘whole class reading’ lessons.
Our ‘whole class reading’ lessons use ‘Reading Dogs’ (domains) to support teaching of the national curriculum PoS and seven fundamental reading skills.
The national curriculum PoS objectives may also be covered during English units of work.
Children take home a school book based upon their zone of proximal development (ZPD).
Children have access to high quality and language rich texts.
A high-quality text is read to the children daily.

Impact

The organisation of reading within the English curriculum and the wider curriculum, has realised a community of enthusiastic readers who enjoy showcasing their developing literacy knowledge and skills. Children are confident to take risks in their reading and love to discuss and share their ideas. Outcomes of work in both English and topic books evidence the high quality of expressive language both in Tier 2 and Tier 3 vocabulary, which reflects the wide and deep reading diet of our pupils. Children perform well from their starting points in assessed comprehension but most importantly they can discuss their reading lives and enjoyment in reading both for learning and for pleasure.