St Marys - Reading

Reading

Our Reading Vision

‘Reading for pleasure is the single most important indicator of a child’s future success’ OECD 2002

‘The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.’ Dr. Seuss

‘Books give a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and life to everything.’ Plato

The ability to read is fundamental to many aspects of life, and is central to progress and development in a wide range of curriculum areas. The teaching of reading is given a high priority by all staff and is woven into all areas of the curriculum.

Success in reading is crucial in developing children’s self-confidence, motivation and ability to access learning in general. This is of the utmost importance to all at St Mary’s, as it is at the core of our Christian vision of giving our children the best possible start in life.

Reading Curriculum Intent.

We strive for all children to be life-long readers. For this to be achieved we feel it is important:

to place understanding and enjoyment at the heart of reading, fostering and interest in Literature and a love of books
that reading is seen by pupils as a worthwhile and purposeful experience
for children in our school to receive consistent messages about reading and about themselves as readers
that teachers are aware of what is involved in the process of reading
to ensure that provision is made for all learners
to provide a range of good quality text at all levels
parents are valued in the contribution they have to make towards their child learning to read
to weave reading into the ‘everyday’ fabric of the school and ensure wider curriculum links are maximised

Children will:

use a range of strategies, including accurate decoding of text, to read for meaning
understand, describe, select or retrieve information, events or ideas from text and use quotation and reference text.
deduce, infer or interpret information, events or ideas from text.
identify and comment on the structure and organization of texts, including grammatical and presentational features at text level.
explain and comment on the writers’ use of language, including grammatical and literary features at word and sentence level.
identify and comment on writers’ purpose and viewpoints, and the overall effect of the text on the reader.
relate the text to their social, cultural and historical traditions.

Early Reading.

At St Mary’s, we have adopted the DfE approved, Read Write Inc. programme of teaching systematic synthetic phonics. This programme equips children with the decoding skills they need to become proficient and fluent readers. Children begin the Read Write Inc. programme in Reception class and continue through the stages until they have developed fluency and independent reading and comprehension skills.

Our approach to teaching Read Write Inc. phonics:

Children are assessed regularly, using a standardised assessment, to ensure that the teaching is closely matched to their abilities and next steps in learning.
Children are streamed across EYFS and KS1 so that they can access appropriate coaching.
All lessons follow the prescribed Read, Write Inc. structure, including sequence of the lesson, gestures, signals and praise phrases.
All staff in EYFS and KS1 are fully trained in Read Write Inc. methods to ensure fidelity to the scheme.
1:1 Interventions take place daily for those children identified, in order to allow them to ‘keep up’ rather than ‘catch up’.
All resources used are official Read Write Inc. resources and are used in the order dictated by the RWI planning. This ensures accuracy, predictability and standardization of teaching of phonics across school.
All books sent home with children are RWI books, linked to the sounds the child has been learning recently, in order to ensure teaching is embedded. All children take home 2 books per week: a ‘teaching book’ which they have been studying in class for that week, and a ‘Book Bag Book’, which is a new text to the child that is fully phonically decodable at their phonics stage.
Children in Key Stage 2 may also access Read Write Inc., if this is required. These sessions are carried out by trained staff in the Key Stage 2 classes.

What the child does:

Read at home daily from their reading scheme book or free reading choice. Sign reading record.
Bring in their reading book, and reading record daily.

What the parents do:

All children have a reading record book, parents/carers are asked to hear their child read three times a week and record this by signing and/or commenting in the child’s reading record book.
Attend meetings with the class teacher/Head Teacher if invited, if tasks or reading record not completed.
Promote a love of reading by sharing a range of text with the child ie Newspapers, picture books.

Oracy in Reading

Oracy is the ability to speak and listen, and it's a key part of developing reading skills. Oracy is used to help with reading in several ways at St Mary’s, including:

Metacognition: Oracy can help students understand the metacognitive processes that are involved in reading. Discussions within class allow a deeper understanding of the text.

Reading comprehension: The cognitive aspects of oracy, such as predicting, summarizing, clarifying, and questioning, are important for reading comprehension. Discussions in “VIPERS” sessions are used to ensure a confident understanding of question expectations and how to structure responses.

Vocabulary: Oracy can help students learn new vocabulary in context. During the introduction of new vocabulary, children are encouraged to discuss possible meanings, other contexts for this word and methods to understanding unknown vocabulary.

Some strategies use for promoting oracy in the classroom include:

Targeted reading aloud: Reading aloud to children and discussing the book can help develop their oracy.
Structured questioning: Asking questions to help develop reading comprehension.
Dialogue: Using dialogue and interaction to help students develop their oracy.
Groupings: A variety of ways to group students for discussion, such as in pairs, trios, or larger groups.
Phonics: Using phonics can help students sound out new words

Enrichment

At St Mary’s, we aim to build a life-long love of reading. In addition to our reading lessons, we aim to achieve this through a number of methods: