Reading in the Village Schools Partnership

We believe that speaking, listening, reading and writing are fundamental life skills which enable children to communicate effectively in all area and equips them for the challenges they will face in the wider world.

Curriculum Intent

Our intent is to promote a reading culture where engaging in discussion, sharing and justifying opinions about reading is valued.

By the end of Year 6, it is our intent that children will be able to read accurately for sustained periods of time using a range of strategies to decode and comprehend text.

Our intent is to promote reading from a wide variety of genres and authors so all children can engage with books that resonate with them.

Specifically for Reading, we are determined that:

  • every child will learn to read, regardless of their background, needs or abilities
  • all children, including the weakest readers, make good progress to meet or exceed age-related expectations
  • children are able to develop vocabulary, language comprehension and a love of reading through stories, poems, rhymes and non-fiction texts
  • children are familiar with, and enjoy listening to, a wide range of stories, poems, rhymes and non-fiction texts
  • our phonics programme, Little Wandle Letters and Sounds, matches the expectations of the National Curriculum and the Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum
  • we have clear expectations of our children's phonics progress 
  • teachers will give children opportunities to practise reading and re-reading books that match the grapheme/phoneme correspondence they know (both in school and at home)
  • teachers have a wide subject knowledge of books and authors in order to expose older children to a wide variety of genres and styles
  • all children will have access to the school library and to the village's mobile library van, where this is available

Implementation of the Curriculum

Teachers:

  • plan from the National Curriculum/ EYFS foundation stage- as presented in Patnership's planning documentation
  • use Phonically decodable books matched to phonic stage in EYFS and Y1, in line with our chosen Phoics approach
    will read to their class daily
  • in EYFS/ KS1 will teach songs, rhymes and whole favourite stories and discuss to build up book comprehension and enjoyment
  • in EYFS/ KS1: will ensure that reading, including the teaching of systematic synthetic phonics is taught from Preschool onwards.  In line with the design of the programme, ongoing assessment of children's phonics progress is sufficiently frequent and detailed to identify any child who is falling behind the Programme's pace. If they do fall behind, targeted, specific intervention is given immediately
  • in EYFS/ KS1 ensure the sequence of reading books shows cumulative progression in phonics knowledge that is matched closely to the Letters and Sounds SSP and its updated 2022 content
  • ensure all children are encouraged to read daily at home but at least 3 times a week. This is monitored through the reading record book which are checked weekly- with a teacher stamp or comment. Children receive effort stamps for reading three times per week and this is recorded by an adult in their record book
  • plan guided reading for each group per week or whole class guided reading (from Year 2 upwards). This involves a high quality text. In some year groups this will be achieved through the use of the online Fiction Express series
  • talk and model creative ways to respond to book.
  • ensure that guided reading and reciprocal reading remain key tools in deepening children's comprehension skills
  • will provide additional intervention for those falling behind.- reading recovery and extra 1:1 reading, for example
  • will timetable regular time in the school library
  • encourage children to collect new vocabulary from their reading
  • encourage children to participate in public library reading challenges and book choosing where mobile library facilities allow
  • organise regular books fairs
  • provide daily opportunity for children to select and read quality books to themselves for pleasure
    children are read to by their class teachers using a Class Text in order to increase vocabulary and experience of different books. These are reflected in the Book Trail in every classroom

 

Our implementation document for Reading can be found HERE

Impact of the Reading Curriculum

  • Children get regular verbal feedback through guided reading
  • Children in KS1 are benchmarked through the structure of Little Wandle Letters and Sounds phonics programme
  • Summative assessment of children’ reading is done each term
  • Y2 and Y6 outcomes are assessed against the end of key stage expectation tool and pre key stage assessment
  • Summative teacher assessment recorded on the school's internal assessment package allowing leaders to assess trends and progress and to identify where children are not making expected progress so that catch-up can be planned

Links with other areas

Our strategy for the teaching of Writing is intrinsically linked to other areas of the English curriculum: