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English Reading

English READING

Intent

At Milton Mount, we are Readers! We want pupils to develop a love of reading, have a good knowledge of a range of authors and be able to understand more about the world in which they live, through the knowledge they gain from texts. We believe that all pupils should have the opportunity to be fluent, confident readers, who are able to successfully comprehend and understand a wide range of texts. The gateway to reading is phonics - our systematic phonics scheme is Read Write Inc (see phonics intent statement for more detail). All children are exposed to sounds daily through high quality teaching and learning. Our vision is to equip all children with secure phonics knowledge that enables them to read and write successfully. 

Our curriculum begins in Early Years Foundation Stage focusing on the early learning goals:

  • Say a sound for each letter in the alphabet and at least 10 digraphs
  • Read words consistently with their phonic knowledge by sound-blending
  • Read aloud simple sentences and books that are consistent with their phonic knowledge, including some common exception words.

We continue up through to Year 6, following the National Curriculum content guidance.

Do more

The curriculum is structured so that all children engage in daily story time. Teachers share books, poems and rhymes with their class at the end of each day. Children participate in daily phonic lessons to build their decoding skills. They also read regularly in 1:1. In KS2, children read independently daily. Time is made for children to read 1:1 with adults. Children who have progressed to the end of the phonic scheme, receive 4 weekly reading sessions designed to develop comprehension. These sessions allow for teacher modelling, paired discussion and independent reflection. Children are exposed to a variety of known and unknown texts during these sessions including fiction, non-fiction and poetry.

Know More

Our whole school book spine ensures a wide range of books are shared with the children allowing them to gain knowledge. These books vary in text type and character type including books of a gender, ethnic and neuro-diverse nature.

Remember More

Recap questions allow children to revisit, consolidate and enhance prior learning enabling children to further develop reading skills and vocabulary. Children have access to the book spine texts read the year before on their class bookshelves, allowing children to independently revisit prior learning.

Experience More

Through a culture of reading, teachers and children share books with each other broadening individual reading experiences. Teachers share a diverse range of carefully-selected books, as well as those recommended by the children. Celebration events, such as World Book Day, and story times with parents enable us to open up a world of reading to our children.

Consider More

Our curriculum will equip children to be thoughtful, reflective and inquisitive about the books they are reading. By exposing children to a wide variety of books and different authors, we will encourage children to make links and comparisons and ask questions about the language chosen by the author and the effect they are trying to create.

 

Implementation

EYFS

Phonics is taught daily in EYFS. The last 20 minutes of each school day is focused on a class story from the book spine. Books are always out and available within the EYFS provision. Children read regularly 1:1 with adults. Children take home two books weekly. When children have logged 15 sessions of home reading, they move along a planet on ‘The Journey to Pluto’.

KS1

Phonics is taught daily in Year 1 and 2 to those children who are yet to complete the phonics scheme.

For those children in KS1 who have finished the systematic synthetic phonics program, they will progress onto reading comprehension lessons. This is time to teach, orally rehearse and independently practice the reading skills. There is also time for regular 1:1 reading. The last 20 minutes of each school day is focused on a class story from the book spine. Children take home two books weekly. When children have logged 15 sessions of home reading, they move along a planet on ‘The Journey to Pluto’.

KS2

In KS2, whole class reading sessions are 4 times per week for 30 minutes per session. This is time to teach, orally rehearse and independently practice the reading skills. There is also time for daily independent reading allowing teachers to hear 1:1 readers. The last 20 minutes of each school day is focused on a class story from the book spine. Children can visit the school library daily at lunchtimes and two afternoons a week to swap their books. They are supported in choosing appropriate texts by their teachers and the school librarian. Accelerated Reader is used to track reading ages and guide the books children read. A prize system is in operation when children reach certain ‘word count milestones’.

Structure of a lesson

  1. The learning objective is shared and discussed with the children.
  2. Recap opportunity on a previous skill
  3. Share 3 ‘tricky’ vocabulary words which appear in that days/weeks reading comprehension.
  4. Teacher modelling of the skill
  5. Paired discussion – children discuss a given question and respond together and then share with the class.
  6. Independent activity – this is an opportunity for the children to independently apply the taught skill to a specific reading task.

Our reading teaching is broken down into four 30-minute sessions

Day 1 – introduction of the reading skill – this session has more of an emphasis on teacher modelling then pair discussion and finishes with a shorter independent task.

Day 2 – teacher model of skill, paired oral rehearsal of the skill before applying this to an independent task.

Day 3 – recap of previously taught skill followed by independent mixed comprehension questions

Day 4 – reading for pleasure/1:1 readers.

Impact

Our aim is that through the delivery of our reading curriculum, children will develop the following skills that we believe to be crucial for future success:

EYFS

  • Parents and carers will have a good understanding of how they can support reading at home, and contribute regularly to homework  
  • Pupils will be able to use phonics to decode words.
  • Demonstrate understanding of what has been read to them by retelling stories and narratives using their own words and recently introduced  vocabulary.
  • Offer explanations for why things might happen, making use of recently introduced vocabulary from stories, non- fiction, rhymes and poems when appropriate.
  • Listen attentively and respond to what they hear with relevant questions, comments and actions when being read to and during whole class discussions and small group interactions.

KS1

  • Pupils will use a range of strategies for decoding words, not solely relying on phonics  
  • remember significant event and key information about the text that they have read
  • make inferences about characters’ feelings using what they say and do.
  • discuss some similarities between books
  • discuss the sequence of events in books and how items of information are related.
  • discussing and clarifying the meanings of words; link new meanings to known vocabulary
  • make predictions using their own knowledge as well as what has happened so far to make logical predictions and give explanations of them.

KS2

  • 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  
  •  Pupils will enjoy reading across a range of genres  
  • Children will have a broad range of comprehension skills across the reading domains.
  • Children will be able to answer a range of question types about a range of texts
  • Retrieve, record and present information from a wide variety of non-fiction texts.
  • infer characters’ feelings, thoughts and motives, giving more than one piece of evidence to support each point made. They can draw evidence from different places across the text
  • distinguish between fact, opinion and bias explaining how they know this.
  • summarise entire texts, in addition to chapters or paragraphs, using a limited amount of words or paragraphs.
  • confirm and modify predictions in light of new information.
  • discuss how presentation and structure, and the use of figurative language, contribute to meaning.