Reading

Reading at Good Shepherd

Intent

Here at Good Shepherd, we put reading at the heart of the curriculum and we strive to foster a love of reading both at school and at home. We believe reading enables children to connect with some of the finest words ever written and it should open up a world of possibility and curiosity. We encourage our children to discover new information and develop their comprehension skills by reading widely using both fiction and non-fiction texts which, where possible,  are linked to their topics across the curriculum. Reading is a fundamental life skill which enables children to communicate effectively in all areas and equips them ready to use their God given talents in later life. By the time our children leave Good Shepherd, we envisage  our children will become lifelong, confident readers

Implementation

Children begin their reading journey in The Early Years Foundation Stage where they are encouraged to explore sound and pitch and experiment with rhyme. As children progress towards Reception the will begin to verbally blend and segment words. Once children begin their journey in Reception they begin developing their phonological understanding to help them acquire the skills to read.

At Good Shepherd, we use a synthetic phonics programme called Read Write Inc (RWI). This programme is a method of learning letter sounds and blending them together to read and write words. This is supported by a comprehensive scheme of reading books which the children read in class and at home. RWI is designed to foster confidence and enjoyment in reading specifically because the children have already learned the sounds that will be contained in the books they read and are therefore able to succeed in their reading. Children who have not met the required standard for phonics in Year 1 or 2 have daily phonics sessions working through the phases either individually or in small group sessions. This continues into Key Stage 2 as necessary. Children who are catching up are encouraged to take home a new phonics reading book after each session. Where children do not read at home, staff facilitate extra reading sessions in the school day.

From Year 2, children are taught reading through a whole class approach. Children explore vocabulary, prediction, sequencing, making inferences and retrieving information using VIPERS. Children explore a wide range of fiction and non-fiction texts cross curricular which enable them to read across the curriculum.

Home Reading

In addition, children take home a reading book and a library book each week to improve reading developing and create a love for reading. In Reception to Year 2, children are given a home reading book that is carefully matched to their reading ability and words are fully decodable. Once children move into Key Stage 2, they are able to access ‘free readers’ these books are carefully curated to ensure they are challenging and contain age appropriate themes. We aim to empower our children to make their own choices about the books they read. This could be re-reading their favourite books or selecting a newspaper or comic books to help promote a love of reading.

We expect parents and carers to understand the importance of home reading and support their child either by filling in the home reading record, or ensuring their child does this independently.  Home reading is to be logged on BoomReader, this enables staff to identify any children who may need additional support with reading, but also help staff create a dialogue around reading.

Impact

Within the RWI programme, children are continuously assessed and the RWI manager carefully tracks the progress of every child. Any child needing additional support is quickly identified and receives tailored intervention. Children continue with the programme until they are confident in decoding and can read with fluency and additional support is provided for those children identified in KS2. From KS1, comprehension skills are assessed termly and in-depth question. Children have access to a varied, text rich curriculum, which allows children to develop a love of reading and understand that reading is an important source of both knowledge and enjoyment. By the end of KS2, children read with both fluency and understanding.

At Good Shepherd,  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 aim is for children to become fluent and confident readers who can apply their knowledge and experience to a range of texts throughout the Key Stage 2 curriculum. The children will have learned to read books to enhance their knowledge and understanding in the curriculum and to become life-long readers. For our Year 6 readers transitioning into secondary school, we aspire that the children will be 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.