INTENT
At Milton Mount We want pupils to develop a love of reading, 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 and our systematic phonics scheme is fun, active and engaging. 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. We do not put ceilings on what pupils can achieve in reading and we do not hold pre-conceptions about any pupil’s ability to make progress. We understand the importance of parents and carers in supporting their children to develop both word reading and comprehension skills, and so we want to encourage a home-school partnership which enables parents and carers to understand how to enhance the skills being taught in school through high quality texts. By the end of their time at primary school, all children should be able to read fluently, and with confidence, in any subject in their forthcoming secondary education.
IMPLEMENTATION
Classroom Organisation
All Children in EYFS and KS1 are taught phonics daily for an hour either within a discreet lesson or targeted revision sessions. All staff are trained on the scheme and are able to deliver high quality phonics teaching. Children are assessed and grouped according to their phonological awareness. This scheme is accessible for all learners including those with SEND and EAL with the use of Stage 0. Reading skills are taught in whole class lessons, to allow all children access to age related skills and knowledge contained in the National Curriculum. Within lessons, teachers and teaching assistants target support for learners where necessary to enable all children to achieve at an age-related level where possible. Children working at a level of greater depth are also given opportunities to demonstrate
further understanding through extended answers, targeted questioning requiring more reasoned answers and making greater links across and between texts. Across KS2 teachers regularly plan challenge opportunities within their reading lessons to challenge the most able and allow them to apply skills out of context.
Phonics: Early Years and Key Stage 1
To allow our children to develop a strong phonic awareness and effective blending and decoding skills, we have chosen to use a DFE validated synthetic phonics programme called ‘Song of Sounds’. Song of Sounds is also a multi-sensory phonics programme. It is hands on and interactive with music, movement and practical activities at its core, to ensure children enjoy the phonics learning process. The programme is a systematic, synthetic approach to teaching phonics, with clear expectations that are laid out week by week from EYFS to Year 2. The scheme links to
high quality reading books published by Harper Collins that we have matched to the children’s current stage. This ensures that children apply their phonetic knowledge in context through writing and the use of high-quality reading texts. Assessment takes place termly with the use of individual booklets to identify children’s current stage.
Whole Class Guided Reading Lessons Key Stage 1 (Reading Rings)
Reading Rings are adult led, small group and fluency focused sessions that take place 3 times a week. The sessions involve the exploration of sounds, understanding new vocabulary, decoding accurately and repetition to build fluency. The National curriculum statements are taught within whole class sessions with a focus on high quality texts.
This sharing of a short extract from high quality texts allows for teachers to model reading skills that are often invisible skills employed by good readers, as well as exposing children to rich and varied texts, harnessing their imagination and promoting a love of books from different genres. The children are given time to explore books within classrooms to harness their love for reading. Challenge and support is given through 1:1 conversations with the child.
Whole Class Reading KS2
At Milton Mount, KS2 reading takes place 4 times a week across a total of two hours. Reading sessions take place using the whole class text to guide the lessons taught. A two weekly cycle ensures that children are taught both the skills from the domains of reading and how to apply these in comprehension tasks from both seen and unseen texts. Alongside these taught sessions adults listen to children read age-appropriate texts that are chosen from the school library. These readers are pitched at or just above the child’s reading age. Children record their reading session in their reading books in a variety of ways.
Home Reading Scheme (Reading Records)
We have a strong understanding of, and appreciation for, the importance of children reading at home. In EYFS and KS1 the children follow a reading incentive called ‘Journey to Pluto’ and in KS2 the children use Accelerated reader. KS1 children read at home to progress along the planets and mark their progress in their reading diaries. Progression through their reading diaries results in prizes being received and being celebrated in assemblies. This scheme encourages all children and families to read at home and strengthens the links between home and school. Across KS2, children have access to the Accelerated Reader programme to ensure that they are reading a book pitched at their reading age. Alongside the text they have access to online digital comprehension questions to check their understanding. The texts in our library are matched effectively to the programme to support children’s text selections through weekly library sessions.
Monitoring
Regular monitoring ensures that standards remain high in the teaching of reading. Examples of monitoring include learning walks, books scrutinies, governor visits and meetings, teacher records and peer monitoring across schools within our trust. Feedback given from any of these forms of monitoring is acted upon in a timely manner where required.
Marking and Feedback
Feedback should be given, where possible, within the lesson either verbally or written. One-to-one reading with a teacher or teaching assistant is carried out daily, with Infant classes hearing each child read at least once per week. Children recognised as needing more regular opportunities to read aloud are worked with one-to-one several times a week.
Summative Assessment
Summative assessments will be entered onto Target Tracker termly. Teachers will use their professional judgement, with the aid of the statements set out in the National Curriculum and standardised scores from termly NFER tests, to determine whether a child is working towards the expected standard, at the expected standard or at a greater depth level.
Teachers will base their judgments for the most part on the quality of the written outcome pupils give after structured teaching within the agreed reading skills. Teachers will also complete reading assessments (e.g. past SATs papers, NFER assessments) to provide another piece of evidence to support their assessment judgment. If tests are used, care is taken to ensure that pupils are prepared appropriately for the test, and any barriers to accessing these is removed.
IMPACT
- Pupils will enjoy reading across a range of genres
- Pupils of all abilities will be able to 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’ reading skills will improve year on year in line with the Milton Mount Primary School progression map for reading
- 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 homework
- The percentage of pupils working at EXS within each year group will be at least in line with national averages
- The percentage of pupils working at GDS within each year group will be at least in line with national averages
- There will be no significant gaps in the progress of different groups of pupils (e.g. PPG vs Non-PPG).