Reading at Whiteparish

At Whiteparish, we believe that it is vital for children to learn to read confidently and for meaning; to become independent learners. Learning to read and reading to learn go hand-in-hand, this is our goal at Whiteparish. Children need to learn to read to access all areas of learning and function effectively in society. We aim to create a reading and language rich environment within our school through vocabulary rich classroom displays and language introduced through adult conversations, high quality texts at all reading levels, reading areas within classrooms, a well-resourced library, teacher modelling and creating links to everyday experiences.

Reading for pleasure:

At Whiteparish we want to build and encourage learners love of reading and appreciation of literature. To further build this we have an inviting library in which each class has weekly visits to change books and sit and read to themselves or each other. The library has a wide variety of books both fiction and non-fiction at all reading levels to appeal to each individual learner.

Teachers demonstrate their love of reading through reading aloud in classes creating wonderful shared experiences. Through this reading time children are exposed to texts they may not read themselves, opening up their imagination and increasing their knowledge and understanding of language. Their vocabulary is enriched while further developing their comprehension skills.

Children are exposed to new authors, genres and worlds within books. Opportunities for live storytelling in which children can engage with various books, authors and forms of literature. In classes from Year R to Year 6 learners have in their class within their library corners a Reading Challenges to complete by the end of the year, in which they need to read a range of age related texts by the end of each year.

Working together with parents and carers we aim to ensure a meaningful reading culture is continued at home through World Book Day, summer holiday reading challenges and reading goal sheets at school harnessing the love of reading.

At home we ask for daily reading of class given readers, encouragement of free reading and reading for pleasure with a parent, carer or sibling. Reading can further be supported through spellings sent home and general discussions around texts.

Phonics:

At Whiteparish we follow the Sounds-Write Phonics Programme. Children are taught daily phonics throughout EYFS to Year 6. Sounds-Write teaches children to understand the way in which the alphabet code works and how best to use this knowledge in their reading and writing accurately and fluently with sound comprehension. Children will start by learning the initial code then the extended code and finally they learn polysyllabic words to extend their understanding further.

Through phonics teaching up to Year 6 we believe learners will deepen their vocabulary, aiding their reading and writing skills. Phonic reading books, Sounds-Write books and Dandelion readers, which are colour banded are linked to their growing knowledge of phonics and ‘tricky’ words aiding in their fluency. Reading books are accessible to all levels and extend learners comprehension and fluency.

To further support with home learning and the practice of phonics and spellings, Year 1 - 6 children use the Spelling Shed scheme – a spelling practice interactive website that combines games with worksheets and activities allowing for all learners’ involvement. As well as this, extra Sounds-Write work will be sent home to allow fluency of sound and recognition development. Parental Workshops are held to enable parents to help their children at home using the correct vocabulary and aid letter-sound recognition.

As leaners progress through the school, they will be assessed enabling us to ensure that learners are taught according to their level of letter-sound recognition, aided with extra support in the individual specific areas required.

High Quality Texts:

We believe in our high quality texts within our reading curriculum allowing engagement and support to all learners while inspiring outcomes. Through these texts we motivate all learners to achieve the goal of independence in reading with confidence and comprehension. To provide challenge for all readers each class has a recommended reading list of 30 books based on both chronological and reading age for pupils to read by the end of the year. The whole school approach of encouraging reading for pleasure and exposure to varied texts is at the heart of the schools’ approach to teaching reading.

From EYFS to Year 6 we have whole class learning journeys structuring quality pupil outcomes driven by high quality texts. Learners have the opportunity to engage with a wide variety of texts through reading journals, book talks, drawing club and from links between various texts, ensuring learners gain deeper meaning of reading, texts and their wider world.

As teachers we ensure learners make connections and are exposed to a variety of texts throughout their learning journeys. Through working with the English Learning Hub and Sounds-Write we ensure we stay up to date with everything related to reading and phonics to ensure learners receive the best from us.

Teaching:

Reading is used daily in all areas of life and therefore we believe reading is a skill that needs to be taught and practiced regularly with a sound phonic knowledge. We ensure that learners receive every skill they need to be effective readers through a variety of methods:

Shared Reading: the teacher models the strategies and skills of a proficient reader through an instructional approach.

Guided Reading: is lead, by a teacher or LSA with small-groups in which a text is analysed using the reading strategies. Learners are grouped into ability groups which are then taught explicitly and given support. Texts are varied in fiction and non-fiction and increase in challenge.

1:1 Reading: learners will be given the opportunity to support their reading through reading with an adult or volunteer, developing their reading skills further.

Paired Reading: learners across the school are paired and a specific time is given for reading to each other and discussion is given allowing for understanding of text, skills and a love of reading to develop in an alternative space.

Volunteer Reading: Volunteers are in school, moving between different classes on various days allowing learners to read to them building their reading for pleasure.

Monitoring of reading throughout the school is done by the Literacy Lead through learning walks, book looks and discussions with learners ensuring that learners are receiving the most out of their reading.

Intervention:

Reading well is a life skill that we use in all areas of our daily lives. We believe all learners no matter their backgrounds can achieve this through our school. We have a structured support system in which reading and phonic interventions are taught in addition to whole class and small group sessions if needed to support reading development. As this is an important part of our curriculum delivery we have a variety of means to deliver these interventions:

• Sounds-Write Phonics Programme diagnostic and intervention.
• 1:1 Reading in which children are supported with their reading and comprehension skill development.

Reading Across the Curriculum:

Reading fluently and independently is essential. Success in reading corresponds with progress in all other areas of the curriculum and is vital in learners’ ability to work independently, their self-esteem, motivation and ability to immerse themselves in daily life.

In the school day reading is constantly occurring in the classroom and outside. Although reading is taught in reading lessons and English sessions, the practice of reading is done in all subjects. In all subjects, teachers ensure texts are accessible to all and support is given where needed. Working walls aid vocabulary knowledge in all learning areas. 

We encourage parents and carers to read the term’s learning journey and knowledge organizers to have a clear understanding of what will be taking place within the learning each term. Discussions around what is being learnt allows learners vocabulary development and aids their reading.

We believe a child’s reading begins with ‘learning to read’ and moves to ‘reading to learn’. Therefore, only with a secure reading ability can children access their learning fully. We aim to develop and support learners on this journey.