Reading
Reading Lead: Mr N Green
'EVERY CHILD A READER'
Learning to read is about listening and understanding as well as working out what’s printed on the page. Through hearing stories, children are exposed to a wide range of words. This helps them build their own vocabulary and improve their understanding when they listen, which is vital as they start to read. It’s important for them to understand how stories work too. Even if your child doesn’t understand every word, they’ll hear new sounds, words and phrases which they can then try out, copying what they have heard.
As children start to learn to read at Coppice Farm Primary School, reading at home can also play an important role in helping to keep them interested in books. Find out what interests them, help them to find books that will be engaging and fun, and spend time reading the books they bring home from school together.
INTENT
At Coppice Farm Primary School, we believe that reading is the fundamental building block that underpins all other aspects of learning. Our aim is to provide children with broad, balanced and differentiated opportunities to develop their reading skills, enabling them to read fluently and confidently with good understanding by the end of Year 6.
We follow the National Curriculum to ensure the progressive development of word reading, fluency and comprehension so that children can read accurately with sound comprehension skills that enables them to make links to learning.
All pupils are encouraged to read a range of texts (fiction and non-fiction) both at school and at home, to help develop a greater understanding of themselves and the world around them. In turn, this will broaden their knowledge, enrich their vocabulary, encourage them to question and instil a love of reading and a thirst for knowledge.
At Coppice Farm Primary School, we recognise that reading skills need to be taught and that every teacher is accountable for the progress in reading for the pupils in their class.
We aim to:
- Teach reading skills on a daily basis either through the English curriculum or discrete whole class guided reading lessons
- Provide a language rich environment that promotes a culture of reading
- Develop in pupils a love of books by exposing them to a wide variety of quality books
- Identify pupils who require additional support and intervene at an early stage
IMPLEMENTATION
- Children are helped to read fluently with the systematic teaching of phonics in EYFS and Key Stage One.
- The progression in ‘Monster Phonics’ is used as a basis for planning. The teaching of this is multi-sensory and active to ensure learning is retained and fun.
- Monster Phonics is designed to assist teachers in the teaching of speaking and listening skills so that, by the end of Key Stage 1, children have developed fluent word reading skills and have a good foundation in spelling and writing. For further information on our Early Reading approach using Monster Phonics, please see our separate Phonics Curriculum page.
- Once children have developed fluent word reading skills, they are further developed through:
• Shared reading through our English curriculum using rich, age-related texts
• Whole class guided reading (minimum twice weekly) again, using a different rich, age-related text
• Independent reading at home and at school
Coppice Farm Primary School provide a variety of enrichment activities throughout the year to instil a love of reading, including:
• Theatre trips
• Author visits • Roald Dahl Day
• World book week activities
• Read-A-Thon
• School library
• Opportunities to read to others in the community
• Performance reading with an audience
• Reading in the wider curriculum
IMPACT
- Our pupils will be competent readers by the time they leave our school.
The impact of Reading success in our school is measured through the following:
- Pupils will enjoy reading across a range of genres and have a love of books.
- Pupils will recommend books to their peers and participate in discussions about books with interest.
- Pupils will have enhanced their knowledge and wider understanding of all subjects across the curriculum.
- Pupils of all abilities will succeed in all reading lessons.
- Pupils will use a range of strategies for decoding words; not solely relying on phonics.
- Pupils will have a good knowledge of a range of authors.
- Pupils will be ready to read in any subject in their forthcoming secondary education.
- Parents and carers will have a good understanding of how they can support reading at home and contribute regularly to home-school records
- Use of questionnaires and pupil voice
In addition, teachers will use formative and summative assessments to measure progress. All year groups assess reading formerly using NTS Assessments. Years 1, 3, 4 and 5 assess termly. Years 2 and 6 assess half-termly.
Statutory assessment will be used in:
• Year 1 (Phonics Screening Check)
• Year 2 (End of KS1 SATs)
• Year 6 (end of KS2 SATs)
Why is reading so important?
Studies show that reading for pleasure makes a big difference to children’s educational performance. Here’s how you can get your child off to a great start.
Evidence suggests that children who read for enjoyment every day not only perform better in reading tests than those who don’t, but also develop a broader vocabulary, increased general knowledge and a better understanding of other cultures.
In fact, reading for pleasure is more likely to determine whether a child does well at school than their social or economic background.
What difference can I make as a parent?
You can make a huge difference! Parents are important teachers in a child’s life and it’s never too early to start reading together.
Even before they're born, babies learn to recognise their parents' voices. Reading to your baby from birth, even for just a few minutes a day, gives them the comfort of hearing your voice and increases their exposure to language.
How can I point them in the right direction?
Make sure that your child is familiar with language and books so they can see how enjoyable reading is. Some of the things you can do include:
- reading aloud to your child, talking about the words and pictures, and sharing ideas about the book
- reading yourself – children who see adults reading, and enjoying it, are much more likely to want to read themselves
- surrounding your child with books – you don't need hundreds of books at home, but go to the library or bookshop regularly to borrow books, spend time together, browse and make choices. In this way, reading becomes a habit.
Most importantly, talk to your child. Spend time with them, doing simple activities (like cooking and making things). As you talk about what you’re doing, you are helping them to learn new words. Later, when they see words written down, they’ve already heard them and know what they mean.
Reading at Coppice Farm
Our expectation is that all children read at least FOUR TIMES a week at home, recording all reading in their reading diary which will be checked each week.
Each time they achieve their four+ reads, they will move forward on their class reading tracker. Children who continually read four or more times every week will be rewarded each term with a choice of activities.
Coppice Farm Super Star Readers League
As part of our four weekly reads challenge in school we hold a Super Star Readers League.
Class reading scores are collected each week and the class the highest score (the most children who have completed their reading at home) is awarded our Super Star Readers of the Week trophy and get additional break time!
It is really important that children are given the opportunity to read regularly and have access to a range of different reading materials. Parents can support children and their reading through regular reading at home. Reading to and with your child every evening for at least ten minutes can make a dramatic difference to a child's achievement within school.
