WEST MEADOWS PRIMARY SCHOOL
READING
Intent
The West Meadows reading curriculum is underpinned by the strong belief that reading is the key to successful learning. We believe that all pupils should have the opportunity to be confident readers who are able to comprehend and understand a wide range of texts. To this end, we place reading at the centre of all we do and strive to give our young people enjoyable, interesting and appropriately challenging reading experiences that are immersive and deepen their understanding of the world around them. We are passionate about promoting a love of reading from the very start of our children’s time at West Meadows and pride ourselves on engaging children with stories and books up until they leave us at the end of Year 6.
We want children to develop a love of reading and a good knowledge of a wide range of authors. By the end of their time at West Meadows, all children should be able to read with fluency and accuracy and should demonstrate good understanding of what they have read. We understand the importance of parents and carers in supporting their children to develop both word reading and comprehension skills, and so encourage a home-school partnership which enables parents and carers to understand how to enhance the skills being taught in school through good quality texts.
Implementation
Our Reading ethos and curriculum is delivered through:
- All pupils receiving daily Guided Reading sessions, reading texts which are age-appropriate and completing tasks designed to stretch their ability.
- Implementation of the Read, Write Inc Phonics programme to ensure a strong start to their reading journey
- Teachers differentiating reading tasks effectively, setting tasks that allow children to make good progress.
- Teachers planning activities around a variety of text types and, through Story Time, exposing children to different authors and genres.
- Teachers reading high-quality, enjoyable texts to children on a daily basis.
- Teachers providing opportunities for, and listening to, children read.
- School providing access to high-quality texts that cover a range of authors and genres.
- The learning environment reflecting the priority of reading within school.
- A love of reading being encouraged, celebrated and rewarded through school-wide incentives such as the Reading Road to Tokyo and Reading Buddies. Reading is incentivised in classes through individual rewards.
- Teachers monitoring and being aware of how frequently children read at home and opportunities being provided to children who require extra time to read in school.
- The “Book Club” initiative allowing identified children further access to reading with a highly-skilled member of staff.
- Guided Reading being timetabled and taking place every day, within a well-established and consistent approach to the teaching of reading.
- Pupils being given the chance to read for pleasure, through activities such as paired reading with year groups across schools. During this time children are encouraged to discuss books and reading.
- Story Time being timetabled and taking place regularly to allow teachers to model effective reading and lead discussions around what has been read.
- Reading books being taken home regularly and reading records being signed.
- Teachers having a clear understanding of the skills which should be taught in each year group to ensure progress across year groups.
- Teachers selecting texts based upon their placement within the context of the curriculum and the needs of the children.
The enjoyment and love of reading being encouraged through school-wide events such as Reading Buddies, Reading Road to Tokyo rewards, Reading Assemblies, Scholastic Book Fairs and World Book Day events.
Impact
Through the teaching of systematic phonics, our aim is for children to become fluent readers by the end of Key Stage One. We are being supported in this endeavour by the Jerry Clay English Hub – a Department for Education (DfE) endorsed network of schools – to ensure that the teaching of Early Reading and Phonics at West Meadows continues to reach our very high standards. Attainment in phonics is measured by the Phonics Screening Test at the end of Year 1. Our approach to Phonics looks at more than just reading: it is a holistic approach which focusses on decoding, comprehension, writing, handwriting and vocabulary as an overall approach. It promotes a consistency within reading across school so that we can give our young people the best possible start and ensure that they can all become confident, fluent readers. To support the provision of Early Reading and Phonics at West Meadows, we have a dedicated Early Reading and Phonics Leader, who is available on a daily basis to ensure the quality of the delivery of phonics and provide real-time, on-the-spot Continuing Professional Development as necessary to ensure the quality of Phonics teaching and learning at West Meadows.
Ensuring that children are adept and fluent readers at the end of Key Stage 1 ensures that we can focus on developing their understanding and comprehension of texts as they move through the school. Attainment in reading is measured using the statutory assessments at the end of Key Stage One and Two along with regular assessments throughout the intervening years, allowing teachers to identify gaps in learning that can be promptly addressed.
We firmly believe that reading is the key to all learning and so the impact of our reading curriculum goes beyond the results of statutory and summative assessments: we give all children the opportunity to enter the magical worlds that books open up to them and we promote reading for pleasure as part of our reading curriculum. Children are encouraged to develop their own love of genres and authors. This enhances a deep love of literature across a range of genres, cultures and styles and ensures that children who leave West Meadows are confident, fluent readers.
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