English Reading

Purpose of study

English has a pre-eminent place in education and in society. Through reading in particular, pupils have a chance to develop culturally, emotionally, intellectually, socially and spiritually. Literature, especially, plays a key role in such development. Reading also enables pupils both to acquire knowledge and to build on what they already know. All the skills of language are essential to participating fully as a member of society; pupils need to learn to speak, read and write fluently and confidently in order to thrive in life.

Phonics and early reading are especially vital in providing all children with the chance to become successful and fluent readers. It supports children in developing their core reading and writing skills.

Aims

When children leave KS1 at Norton St Nicholas they will:

Be successful and fluent readers.
Have developed a love of reading that extends beyond the classroom, allowing them to build on their skills through a curiosity and thirst for knowledge.

When children leave Norton St Nicholas they will:

read easily, fluently and with good understanding and confidence.

have developed the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information.
have acquired a wide vocabulary through reading a variety of rich texts, both fiction and non-fiction.
be able to elaborate and explain clearly their understanding and ideas in discussions about texts.

What we teach

Early Years and Year 1

In Early Years and Year 1, the primary focus of our teaching of reading is to ensure all children are able to decode words so they can read fluently. This is done through:

Daily phonics sessions -These are critical so that children can understand what sounds are and how they can be blended together to read words, then sentences. Phonics is taught systematically and should include whole word recognition and phoneme awareness. We teach phonics through the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds scheme.
Guided reading groups in Early Years and Year 1 – This is a planned guided reading session for each child to ensure the development of word recognition (in context) and language comprehension. There is a clear teaching sequence (intro, strategy check, independent reading (including pre-read) and return and respond) and ‘double dosing’ of target groups, which has proved to be very effective for progress.
Individual reading (daily for those who need it)
Daily shared reading (including English lessons) – The focus here is on the adult modelling and developing fluent reading (including re-reading, self-correcting, use of punctuation, decoding words etc.) and modelling age related reading behaviours. There is opportunity to talk about the text and vocabulary and develop and encourage literal and inferential comprehension to scaffold new understanding. It is useful to use big books or the visualiser for this.

Year 2 - Year 6

In Years 2 through to Year 6, reading is taught as a whole-class group at least 3 times per week, rather than in smaller groups. This means all pupils are having a far greater amount of quality first teaching per week.

There is a focus on reading wide range of high-quality fiction and non-fiction texts, some of which will be closely linked to what they are learning in the wider curriculum. The ongoing focus is to develop fluency, vocabulary and comprehension skills.

Children who require it will continue to receive daily phonics sessions and other personalised reading support.