Reading is not only learning to read words and understand what's happening in stories or texts, but also discovering the joy of getting lost in books.

"I like reading our class Creative Curriculum Book - Enchated Wood was my favourite," - Year 3 

Intent

• Foster independent and reflective readers who are confident to talk about books and authors.
• Instil a love of reading for pleasure and enjoyment of a wide range of fiction and non-fiction texts.
• Equip our children with the skills needed to tackle unfamiliar vocabulary and read for both meaning and pleasure.
• Develop fluency and enjoyment of reading to help remove barriers to achievement in school, future learning and the world of work.
• Utilise reading skills across the curriculum.

Implementation

• Reading is predominately taught through daily whole class sessions.

Year 3 Autumn Term:

• Children are baselined using Little Wandle Rapid Catch Up and Fluency resources upon entry.
• Little Wandle fluency programme is taught daily in groups depending on children’s fluency speeds.
• The focus is on reading aloud, prosody, and repeated reading.
• Comprehension is taught using a dialogic talk model.

Years 3 (Spring/Summer), 4, 5, and 6:

• Whole class reading is taught using the Jane Considine Reading Unit Plans.
• Daily 30-minute reading sessions.
• Two Book Talk sessions focused on the Reading Rainbow lenses.
• Three follow-up sessions: The Big Picture, Making Meaning Mindmap, and Comprehension.
• Book Talk approach:
  • Develops "reading detective" skills.
  • Focusses on fluent reading using Reading Rainbow lenses:
    • FANTASTICs (ideas of reading)
    • STYLISTICs (understandings of reading)
    • ANALYTICs (competencies of reading)
• The Big Picture:
  • Children extract main ideas from texts.
  • Develops ability to pose unanswered questions.
• Reading like a detective:
  • Children identify key information and links between ideas.
  • Focusses on links between characters, setting, or themes.
• Demonstration comprehension:
  • Uses the "I do, we do, you do" model to develop comprehension skills.
• In addition, children read a whole class text linked to their creative curriculum unit of learning. As part of their learning journey, they complete reading tasks linked to this text aimed at improving their understanding of the text to develop both comprehension and writing skills.
• Children have two opportunities a week to change their books at our school library which is well-stocked with a variety of titles matching a streamlined version of the Oxford Reading Tree levels. Each year group has their own reading challenge to encourage children to read both their school library books and books they enjoy reading for pleasure as many times as they can throughout the week.
• Ongoing assessment of reading is tracked using the Jane Considine reading assessment objectives in all year groups. In the spring and summer terms, reading comprehension is assessed using NFER papers in Yr 3/4/5. Past SATs papers are used to assess reading progress in Yr 6.

Little Wandle

• Across the school, we use the Little Wandle Rapid Catch-up programme to give urgent targeted support to children who are not reading at age-related expectations so that they can access the curriculum and enjoy reading as soon as possible. Little Wandle Rapid Catch-up is a complete catch-up programme that mirrors the main phonics programme used by both our main feeder schools but has a faster pace. The programme is delivered daily one-to-one or in small groups by a learning support assistant. By the end of the programme children should be reading with enough fluency and accuracy to access the curriculum in class, and to read with enjoyment and understanding.
• The Little Wandle Fluency programme is used to further develop children’s reading fluency after they have graduated from the Little Wandle Rapid Catch-up programme. The fluency programme consists of 10 levelled reading stages that focus on building reading speed and accuracy, with the goal of children achieving a reading rate of at least 125 words per minute. By working through the programme, children solidify their decoding skills and build the automaticity needed to read with sufficient pace and expression, allowing them to fully comprehend the texts they encounter.

Implementing a Love of Reading

‘Reading for pleasure is the single most important indicator of a child’s success.’ (OECD 2002)

‘The will influences the skill and vice versa.’ (OECD 2010)

• High-quality texts are read aloud in class for children to enjoy every day.
• Well stocked and maintained library that children can visit multiple times a week.
• Reading Leaders to promote reading across the school and support in ensuring the library is maintained respectfully.
• Reading recommendations from teachers and Reading Leaders -  ‘I am reading posters’.
• Reading events including National Poetry Week and World Book Day.
• Encouraging reading at home – reading curriculum evenings, opportunities for parents to come in and read with children, planners to foster communication between school and home about reading.
• Book fair visit every year.
• Author visits.
• Birthday book scheme.
• Buddy reading across the school.
• Year group reading incentives.
• A list of age-appropriate books is shared with parents through the school planner, discussed at year group meetings and on the school website to promote children reading widely for pleasure.
• Class libraries stocked with books from our school reading spine.
• Reading newsletters.
• Reading assemblies.

Impact

• As we believe that reading is key to all learning, the impact of our reading curriculum goes beyond the result of statutory assessments. Children have the opportunity to enter the wide and varied magical worlds that reading opens up to them. As they develop their own interest in books, a deep love of literature across a range of genres cultures and styles is enhanced.
• Through the teaching of systematic phonics and reading enquiry, our children become fluent and confident readers who can apply their knowledge and experience to a range of texts through the Key Stage 2 curriculum.
• As a Year 6 reader transitioning into secondary school, children are fluent, confident and able readers, who can access a range of texts for pleasure and enjoyment, as well as use their reading skills to unlock learning in all areas of the curriculum.
• Parents and carers have a good understanding of how they can support reading at home, and contribute regularly to school planners.
• The % of pupils working at age-related expectations and above age-related expectations within each year group will be at least in line with national averages and will match the ambitious targets of individual children (2024 – EXS 84% GDS 40%).
• The gaps in the progress of different groups of pupils will be minimal.
• Pupil voice shows our children enjoy their whole class texts and action has been taken to replenish the library where children asked for a wider variety of texts.