Subject Overview

Intent

We want children at Clover Hill to:

• read easily, fluently and with good understanding
• develop the habit of reading widely and often, for pleasure and information
• acquire a wide vocabulary
• appreciate our rich and varied heritage
• elaborate and explain clearly their understanding to others

How is reading taught at Clover Hill?

Reading at Clover Hill consists of two dimensions (as stipulated in the National Curriculum):  word reading and comprehension.

Skilled word reading involves the speedy working out of the pronunciation of unfamiliar printed words (decoding) and the speedy recognition of familiar printed words. Children need to be taught that letters on a page represent sounds in spoken words.  There is an emphasis on phonics teaching in Reception and KS1 however this will continue through school where and when needed for individual pupils.

Effective comprehension of a text will draw from linguistic knowledge (vocabulary and grammar) and from knowledge of the world.  At Clover Hill, we aim to develop pupils’ comprehension skills through high quality discussion of a range of stories, poems and non-fiction with the teacher or teaching assistant.

Children are encouraged and steered towards read widely across both fiction and non -fiction to develop knowledge of themselves and the world around them, establish an appreciation of reading and also to gain knowledge across the curriculum.

We aim to increase pupils’ vocabulary by reading widely as this provide opportunities to encounter words they would rarely hear or use in their everyday life.

Our reading curriculum is designed to stimulate our pupils’ imaginations and fill them with curiosity about the world.   We aim to enable pupils to acquire the reading skills needed to be able to take advantage of opportunities, responsibilities and experiences in later life.

All teachers are all aware of the end points at each key stage and play a vital role preparing children to meet the required standards.  The curriculum is taught in a logical progression over seven years, systematically and explicitly so that all pupils can acquire the intended knowledge and reading skills.  The reading curriculum has been planned and sequenced to ensure children have opportunities to revisit, practise and repeat learning which is key to deep understanding and having a mastery of skills.

Links across subjects were established to help deliver the reading curriculum effectively in a way that will engage the children and stimulate interest.  Through group and class discussions, our reading curriculum aims to provide children with skills and knowledge that can be drawn upon in later life across a range of social situations.

Implementation

How is the reading curriculum organised and delivered?

Reading is taught in a variety of ways through 1-1 reading, reading workshops in small groups, whole class reading lessons and weekly comprehension lessons where children are taught to use and apply the skills of reading.

At the beginning of each new academic year, parents are given a reading list of suggested titles of age-appropriate texts.  These booklets were also uploaded to our website.

New parents in Reception class are provided with a guide to the teaching of phonics and reading to help them support their children during the early stages of reading which is available on our website.  They are also invited into school to take part in a reading lesson with their child.

Reading is a priority within the school.  All subject leader meetings within the authority are attended and key messages and relevant handouts are provided to staff.  Reading CPD is promoted relevant for specific year groups or needs.

Impact

Standards in reading are above the national in both KS1 and KS2.

Our reading curriculum is organised clearly, so each teacher knows exactly what is expected of their year group.  Skills are taught, they are practised, and they are repeated and revisited.  This enables our children to develop deep understanding so they can use and apply skills taught in reading across all subjects at the same high standard as they do in the specific comprehension and reading workshop sessions.

How do we evaluate the effectiveness of our reading curriculum?

Teaching and learning is monitored through planning and assessment scrutiny, lesson observations, work scrutiny and through talking to the children within lessons.  This provides a basis to evaluate reading effectively.

The strengths and highlights of reading are identified at the end of the Summer term which are then reported to governors.  From this evaluation the new school improvement plan for English is written, with clear aims as to what could be improved or developed.  The action plan has clear time frames, accountability and SC and is monitored regularly to see that progress is being made.

A questionnaire for children and parents is sent out to complete at the end of the Summer term to highlight their thoughts on the strengths of reading and to identify areas they feel could be improved.  This also feeds into the action plan.

The data each term from teacher assessment across school is analysed to see where our strengths are or if there are any particular areas that could be improved.  Support/training or resources is offered if needed.

Does the reading curriculum meet the needs of all the learners in your school?

Individual pupils who are not making as much progress as their peers are monitored to ensure intervention strategies are put in place and that they make a difference.

Progress and achievement of all learners is tracked, and the curriculum is personalised when required.  Children with an EHCP have specific targets which are monitored and evaluated each term.  Planning/work scrutiny shows differentiation is evident throughout the school.

What are the curriculum strengths in reading?

Special events (WBD, Booky Breakfast) visitors (authors/plays) and competitions (Reading in Strange Places, Young Writers) are organised within school to promote the reading for pleasure and with family.

A book fair is booked into school each year to promote reading for pleasure.

Reading books are kept up to date, relevant and have a wide choice of genre to promote and stimulate reading for pleasure.  The wide choice means there is something for everyone, especially our reluctant readers.

SEND/Inclusion

Children who are identified as being on the SEND register will be given support as identified on their Individual Provision Map. A variety of support materials are available from the SENDCo. Children are supported in the first instance through quality first and adaptive teaching techniques utilised in line with the individual needs of the children. All provision for pupils with SEND is in line with the school’s SEND Policy.

Interventions

Intervention programmes that take place out of the classroom such as Lexia and phonics interventions are in place. Assessment data will also be used with targeted children that require further support in their reading. All pupils will have equal rights and access to high quality teaching for reading. Interventions are evaluated half termly to ensure impact and cost-effectiveness.

Equal Opportunities

At Clover Hill Primary School, the curriculum for Reading will develop enjoyment of and commitment to stimulating the best possible progress and the highest attainment for all our pupils irrespective of social background, culture, race, gender, differences in ability and disabilities. All of our pupils have a secured entitlement to participate in the English Curriculum and our teaching approaches ensure the avoidance of stereotyping when planning work or organising groups. All the teaching staff agree that when using reference materials, they should reflect social and cultural diversity and provide positive images of race, gender and disability.

Supporting Your Child To Read At Home

Clover Hill Phonics Scheme
 We use Phonics Shed to deliver our phonics programme. This links well with Spelling Shed in KS2.

Early Years and Key Stage 1 guided reading and reading books for home are from Big Cat and Phionics Shed and are matched to the phonic stage of each child.

EYFS and KS1 Reading Support

Our EYFS and Key Stage 1 Team would like to give an update with regards to how we have changed Home Readers for those children reading the Big Cat Collins Phonics Books (Red to Turquoise Level).

In line with the latest research and government advice, we have been making changes to the way that our home/school reading books support our phonics teaching over the last year or so. One of the changes is to send out phonically decodable books out for practice at home. These are the worded books that your child has been reading that include the sounds that we have been learning in class.

We are asking that you  continue to support your child with their phonics and reading by practising this book 3 times per week. From now on, children will receive one phonic book per week to enable you to spend time practising it and re-visiting it a number of times.

In order to get the maximum benefit from each read of the book and to prevent children from becoming bored of the same text, we advise that your three ‘reads’ take the following format: 

READ ONE – Concentrate on decoding (blending the individual sounds into words and reading the Tricky Words e.g. the into no, on sight)

READ TWO – Concentrate on fluency (encourage your child to re-read whole sentences back faster once they have blended each word without blending them again. Can your child recognise words that are repeated from pages to page and read back the sentence without re-blending?)

READ THREE – Concentrate on comprehension (ask your child to re-tell you the story, answer simple questions about the events or information).  Please use the ‘Helping Your Child to Read at Home’ booklets to support you with questioning (given out at the start of the academic year and also found on our website in the reading section).  There are questions in the back of each reading book to help you also.

We realise that some parents are able to spend some time on reading each day and may appreciate some additional tasks so we suggest the following activities once the book has been read three times:

• Tricky Words (practise the Tricky Word reading and spelling challenges from the back of the Home Links book)
• Letter formation (make sure that your child starts each letter in the correct place and forms the letter correctly)
• Spelling words and short sentences that include the sounds learned so far (We are happy to send out word lists on request)

Mrs Farnaby has recorded three instructional videos to demonstrate how to complete each of the three reads.  Please watch as they are very informative and will help you to support your child:

We will be offering parent/teacher workshops in due course where we can work with you and your child to model each of the reading stages.

Thank you for your support.