INTENT

We want our children to read fluently and with confidence in any subject by the time they are ready to move to secondary school. We want our children to love reading and to want to read for themselves.

When they leave our school children will:

• read easily, fluently and with good understanding
• develop the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information
• acquire a wide vocabulary, an understanding of grammar and knowledge of linguistic conventions for reading, writing and spoken language
• appreciate our rich and varied literary heritage

We recognise that each child has their own starting point upon entry to every year group and progress is measured in line with these starting points to ensure that every child can celebrate success.

IMPLEMENTATION

At St Peter’s, we work on promoting a love of reading in all children and fostering a text rich environment where children understand how language works as well as develop the skills they need to be proficient readers and to interpret texts accurately. Around school, you will see well-equipped reading corners and a well-stocked and vibrant Library area. In addition to this, throughout the year, the importance of reading is enhanced through activities such as World Book Week, storyteller visits, book-based dance workshops and book fairs.

Teaching Reading beyond Little Wandle

At St Peter’s Primary School, we teach reading through

• Daily dedicated high quality taught phonics sessions from Reception to Year 2
• Phonics intervention sessions for children in KS2 who did not pass the phonics check or who need additional support
• Daily Guided Reading sessions with a focus on VIPERS skills. (VIPERS is an acronym to aid the recall of the 6 reading domains as part of the UK’s reading curriculum. They are the key areas which we feel children need to know and understand in order to improve their comprehension of texts.) The children are exposed to a range of different texts and can demonstrate their understanding and thinking behind these.
• Children are read to each day by an adult to develop their love for reading for pleasure.
• Children are provided with a text rich curriculum. These high-quality texts expose the children to higher level vocabulary.

 

Early reading books are sorted by phonics stage. Children then move on to colour banded books. Once children have confidently read the colour banded books, they will move on to books they can choose through the Accelerated Reading Programme. This highly motivating programme assesses children’s reading ability and allocates a range of books within classroom reading areas that the children can then choose from. Along with close monitoring from class teachers, this ensures pupils are reading books with an appropriate level of challenge.

IMPACT

Children will leave St. Peter's as competent readers. They can read books to enhance their knowledge and understanding of all subjects in our curriculum and communicate their research to a wider audience. They will have a thirst for reading a wide range of high-quality texts across the genres, participate in discussions about books and have an established love of reading for life.

We use NFER summative testing, past SATs papers in Years 2 and 6, Accelerated Reader Star Reading tests and book band level checks each term to assess pupils’ outcomes for reading. This enables progress and attainment in reading to be analysed and evaluated in order to identify the next steps of learning.

The quality of reading and writing in English is evaluated by learning walks, drop-ins, ‘pupil voice’ discussions and book looks. This informs the subject leader of the impact of new initiatives as well as future areas for improvement. After monitoring, the subject leader provides feedback to SLT and individuals/whole staff to address areas for development.