Reading
Our whole school target:
Every child to leave Lee Chapel as a confident reader
What is the Reading Vision at Lee Chapel?
Simply, the teaching of reading and writing is at the very core of everything at Lee Chapel. As such we strive for excellence because of the importance of the subject at school and beyond. At Lee Chapel, every child reads, and is read to, every day. This is because we recognise that reading is the gateway to learning, and therefore it is very important that your child reads at home as well as in school. Reading is the skill prioritised above all others and all children are expected to develop reading fluency with good understanding of what they have read. Ensuring high levels of motivation for reading encourages children to develop the habit for both pleasure and for information. Records of children reading should be entered into the reading journal on a daily basis and signed by an adult.
Our Approach
At Lee Chapel Primary School, we deliver a high-quality mastery curriculum. This means that our curriculum design is a progressive model where pupils build on previous learning through their knowledge and application of clear and concise composite goals. Pupils know more and remember more through rehearsal, which leads to a deep and secure knowledge of the key components. The curriculum intent is designed to meet the needs of our community. The intent and implementation of the curriculum are clearly embedded through a clear pedagogical approach, structure and sequence. All staff understand the school’s curriculum intent and what it means for their practice. All work given to pupils matches the curriculums aims and composite goals and shows sequence in how knowledge and skills build for future learning. Pupil outcomes are consistently of a high quality, including disadvantaged pupils and pupils with SEND. Pupils build on previous learning, practise and rehearse to build automaticity. This is supported through the use of our Lowest 20% Toolkit. The curriculum is ambitious and ensures there is strong challenge for all groups of pupils. The curriculum goes well beyond the academic to build cultural capital through music, the arts, sports, languages and international links. Teachers have strong subject knowledge and leaders have provided bespoke professional development.
Further information on our approach to Reading
Intent
At Lee Chapel Primary School, we believe that the teaching of reading is integral to a child’s understanding and appreciation of the world around them; a platform that allows our children to see beyond what they know, share in cultural experiences and develop the vocabulary they need to effectively express themselves. Our reading curriculum strives to foster a lifelong love of reading. We cultivate the behaviours that they will need to be discerning readers as they read frequently and widely using a range of evidence-based strategies and discuss what they read. This curriculum is delivered through synthetic phonics, a linked approach to shared and guided reading, home reading, reading across the curriculum, regular opportunities for independent reading and hearing quality texts read aloud every day. All of these are essential components as they offer the range of opportunities needed to develop fluent, enthusiastic and critical readers.
It is important that children are motivated to read at home regularly; when their reading opportunities increase, so does their fluency and stamina which in turn increases their enjoyment of reading. Therefore, the link between children’s motivation to read and reading for pleasure is reciprocal. Furthermore, we know that reading pleasure is beneficial not only for reading outcomes, but for wider learning enjoyment and mental wellbeing. Thus, we work hard to foster a love of independent reading and build communities of engaged readers. We understand the significance of parents and carers in supporting their children to develop both word reading and comprehension skills so we endeavour to build a home-school partnership through our coffee mornings and workshops which enables parents and carers to have the confidence to support their children with reading at home.
Our school and class libraries allow children to immerse themselves in the wonderful world of books. They are stocked with an attractive range of fiction and non-fiction and encompass the latest reading trends and classic texts that should be part of every child’s primary school experience-building the children’s cultural capital.
Reading Ambassadors are selected once a term. These are children who have a passion and excellent attitude to reading. These children help promote reading in class and across the school.
Books are chosen carefully to represent pupil’s lives but also to allow them to experience new topics and themes.
Implementation
- Systematic teaching of synthetic phonics from Reception to Year 2
- From Year 1 to Year 6 - 1 hour per week - Big Read lessons(learning and using key reading skills.
- From Year 3 to Year 6 – 15 minutes 3 times per week – Just Read (an opportunity to read for fun)
- From Year 1 to 6 - Dedicated Reading Comprehension lesson each week within the English teaching timeline
- Whole school Reading Doorway challenge – an expectation for 6 carefully chosen books to be experienced and read from Nursery to Year 6
- Teachers as readers. Show how much they love reading.
- 100 Book Challenge- Year 6.
- Class Reading Books.
- Reading for fluency texts read aloud in every English lesson.
- World Book Week – an annual event inviting inspiring authors to visit the children
Impact
At Lee Chapel, our philosophy is that every child leaves a confident reader. We strive to go above and beyond to make sure all of our children are able to read by the time they leave us. We have a clear understanding that reading underpins having a successful career and future. We measure impact by having termly formal assessments where teachers are able to see the impact on reading skills in a comprehension test. Teachers use this feedback to inform interventions to ensure that all children are able to keep up with age related expectations.
This implementation is monitored regularly by English leads and support is given where required. The aim is always to make sure the impact on children is the best it can be. Regular moderations take place during the school year in year group teams. Reading will always be a key focus to make sure that children are showing they have the required reading skills to be a confident reader.
A Reading Assessment Grid is used in Year 1-6 to track progress and encourage consistent professional dialogue between teachers and support staff.
At Lee Chapel we believe that fluency in reading opens up a world of possibilities and starts children on their journey of reading for enjoyment and growth, as well as providing them with the skills to access the curriculum.
Our commitment to reading starts from the moment they step through the door of their very first class room in reception. As a result we have developed a structured approach to the way we assign home reading books. Each child will be coached and encouraged to move through 3 coloured bands each year (please see below). Each of these bands represents a wide range of genres that will covering the breadth of age appropriate texts. In order to effectively ‘track’ the children’s progress clearly, they will be assigned a colour according to their current reading level. Every time a child is heard reading by an adult they will ask a range of skill-based questions. Based on the child’s response a corresponding (skill based) sticker will be awarded in their Reading Record.
Reading diaries are provided for every child at Lee Chapel at the start of each new academic year. These act as record to track the number of times the children are reading per week, as well as the amount of books read. This record is also used to record weekly spellings and is utilised as a way of liaising between home and school regarding reading and spellings, in order to fully support our children.
Book Corners
To enrich the reading environment and encourage all children, including reluctant readers, to pick up a book and read, every class’ book corner is transformed in to a fantasy world linked to the year group’s current topic.
Books are displayed and children are able to write reviews for peers from a child’s perspective.
Big Read Year 1 - Year 6
Across the school we have Big Read, a weekly guided comprehension hour.
In Years 1-5 this takes the form of a different genre each week, with prepared questions covering a range of strategies including retrieval and inference. In Year 6, each class works with a classic text each term; allowing all pupils regardless of ability to access a huge range of vocabulary.
As you can see, at Lee Chapel we are passionate about reading; if you are too, why not volunteer and become one of our reading buddies?
Reading Doorway
Each year the children will be challenged to read six new and exciting suggested books from school from the class Reading Doorway library.
Once a book has been completed the children are then be awarded a sticker in their Reading Doorway Booklet as a record. There are 6 books to read each year and we have challenged the children to read all 42 of them during their time at Lee Chapel. Doing so will improve their understanding of a wide range of narratives, story structure and most importantly foster a love of reading.
Just Read
Just Read sessions are fun and exciting and happen 3 times a week for Years 3-6, where children have 1 short piece of text to read aloud and explore as a class. Children do a range of engaging activities that are based around Echo and Choral Reading. Just Read is designed to promote a love of reading and give extra confidence to those who find reading a challenge.
English Reading Lead
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
