English                                        

Reading

Intent:

At Creswell Junior School, we believe that the ability to read is fundamental to our children succeeding; enabling them to access the next stage of their education and beyond, fashioning lifelong readers. Our curriculum has been designed to ensure that pupils have opportunities to develop a love of reading. Our aim is to ensure that pupils gain a thirst for reading a range of genres and participating in discussions about the books; exploring the language used by different authors and the impact the written words have on the reader. Our curriculum has also been designed to ensure that pupils not only read for pleasure but to use books to research and gather new knowledge to extend their understanding.

Aims:

To gain a life-long enjoyment of reading and books.

To read accurately, fluently and with understanding;

To apply a knowledge of structured synthetic phonics in order to decode unfamiliar words with increasing accuracy and speed;

To be able to read with expression, clarity and confidence;

To develop a good linguistic knowledge of vocabulary and grammar;

To read and respond to a wide range of different types of texts;

To develop a deeper level of emotional intelligence and empathy;

Implementation:

We believe that ‘reading for pleasure’ is at the heart of teaching children to read. Across the whole school, classes are engaged in reading competitions, whole school activities, book weeks, book fairs, visiting authors and a range of pleasurable, reading activities.

We use Accelerated reading and STAR assessments to ensure each child has an appropriate booked, matched to their reading ability. Children also take part in quizzes, once they have finished the book, to demonstrate their comprehension understanding. Children take part in daily discreet reading fluency and comprehension lessons, which focus on developing pupils’ level of understanding of the text through discussion, written and oral tasks and the exploration of new vocabulary. Pupils will be taught to retrieve, infer, predict, summarise, analyse and evaluate a whole class text.

Time is set aside during the week, for teachers to read to the children and share quality books from a range of authors.

We encourage our pupils to read for pleasure and to read widely. Pupils explore a novel, developing their reading skills and their ability to understand the author’s intent, connections and links to their own experiences. Discussion and critiquing are key aspects of these lessons.

Children are read to each day by their class teacher. This can be a book that the teacher recommends to the class or a recommendation from a child. 

Independent Reading is encouraged daily.  Pupils are regularly tested to assess their reading level, ensuring that pupils are reading the most appropriate books. Reluctant readers, or those pupils who struggle with reading are heard reading every day to ensure that they make expected progress.

Children who fall into the ‘lowest 20%’ are listened to read everyday, all other children are listened to read at least once at week.  

Impact:

As we believe that reading is key to all learning, the impact of our reading curriculum goes beyond the result of statutory assessments. Children have the opportunity to enter the wide and varied magical worlds that reading opens up to them. As they develop their own interest in books, a deep love of literature across a range of genres cultures and styles is enhanced.

Through the teaching of systematic phonics and reading enquiry, our aim is for children to become fluent and confident readers who can apply their knowledge and experience to a range of texts through the Key Stage 2 curriculum.

As a Year 6 reader, transitioning into secondary school, we aspire that children are fluent, confident and able readers, who can access a range of texts for pleasure and enjoyment, as well as use their reading skills to unlock learning and all areas of the curriculum. We firmly believe that reading is the key to all learning and so the impact of our reading curriculum goes beyond the results of the statutory assessments.

In addition to this:

• Parents and carers will have a good understanding of how they can support reading at home, and contribute regularly to home-school records.
• The % of pupils working at age related expectations and above age related expectations within each year group will be at least in line with national averages and will match the ambitious targets of individual children.
• There will be no significant gaps in the progress of different groups of pupils (e.g. disadvantaged vs non-disadvantaged)

For our Accelerated Reader page, please click here.