English at Weston Favell CE Primary School

Reading Intent:

At Weston Favell CE Primary School, we aim to ensure that all pupils: read easily, fluently and with good understanding; develop the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information; acquire a wide vocabulary; and develop a lifelong love of reading. Through reading, pupils have a chance to develop culturally, emotionally, intellectually, socially and spiritually.

The aim of our reading curriculum is to promote and attain the highest standards of reading whilst equipping the children with a love of literature which they carry with them for life. We aim for our children to become readers with agency and foster a life-long appreciation for reading.

Our aims are built around NPAT’s Key components (see below). We aim for the children to be able to:

• Read easily, fluently and with good understanding
• Choose to read widely and often for both pleasure and information
• Understand what they read by drawing on a range of strategies including grammar, illustrative and knowledge of linguistic conventions
• Increase their vocabulary
• Have access to a variety of the finest literature which challenges and engages
• Understand the role of reading and literature on their lives and wider society
• Engage in discussion in order to learn, deepen their thinking and form opinions
• Use their reading to influence their writing

Implementation:

Reading starts on day one when children join Weston Favell CE Primary School.

We focus on the two core strands of becoming a fluent, strategic reader as outlined in the Scarborough Reading Rope: Word Recognition and Language Comprehension. We also prioritise reading for pleasure through our reading culture in order to promote a lifelong love of literature.

Phonics, Word Recognition and Early Reading

To develop children’s ability to recognise and decode words, we use the linguistic phonics programme Sounds-Write as our implementation strategy. The Sounds-Write approach is based on the sounds in speech and moves to the written word. It focusses on what the learner needs to understand about the English alphabet code in order to become a fluent reader and speller of English e.g. the

• conceptual knowledge they require
• alphabet code knowledge they require
• skills they need to employ the conceptual and alphabet code

This approach also marries with our writing strategy by promoting encoding at the same time as decoding.

Children in EYFS and KS1 receive a daily 30-minute phonics session. The lowest 20% are monitored and carefully assessed with timely and appropriate interventions being put in place such as pre-teaching. They are also heard read more frequently.

Every child has access to a phonetically decodable book which is suitable for their reading attainment as well as a library book to develop reading for pleasure. These books are routinely monitored by the class teacher.

Our children continue to have Sounds-Write lessons through to Year 6 (three 20-minute sessions a week) to continue to progress their word-reading and spelling knowledge and skills. Strategies for spelling taught in phonics lessons are reinforced across the curriculum whenever children are transcribing.

Language Comprehension

At Weston Favell CE Primary School, we place reading at the heart of our curriculum. Our English curriculum is based upon core texts which have been carefully selected to engage and inspire our children, as well as exposing them to a wealth of themes, cultures and genres.

Dedicated whole-class reading comprehension lessons are taught from Reception to Year 6. Our reading strategy is based on the work of Doug Lemov, utilising his close-read approach. All year groups complete a close-reading lesson each week with follow up activities in Reception and additional reading lessons in KS1 and KS2.

Our reading lessons focus on the following skills drawn from the National Curriculum:

Vocabulary including:

• Draw on knowledge of vocabulary to understand texts
• Give and explain the meaning of words in context

Retrieval including:

• Retrieve and record key information/details from fiction and non-fiction texts

Inference including:

• Make inferences from the text
• Explain/justify inferences using evidence from the text

Prediction including:

• Predict what might happen from the details stated and implied

Explaining including:

• Explain key aspects of a fiction or non-fiction text
• Explain how language, structure and presentation contribute to meaning
• Identify/explain how meaning is enhanced through the writer’s choice of words

and phrases

Comparing including:

• Make comparisons within and across texts

Summarising including:

• Summarise main events in a text
• Sequence events in a text
• Summarise main ideas from more than one paragraph

Discussing and Understanding including:

• Asking questions about a text to improve their understanding
• Reading aloud and performing poems and plays
• Discussing their favourite words and phrases
• Sharing and justifying their views about what they have read

Children also encounter reading opportunities across the wider curriculum.

Parental Involvement

Parents are key to supporting children’s reading development, especially reading for pleasure. The school supports parents’ confidence and understanding of the teaching of reading by providing termly Reading Updates, help sheets and through information meetings. Parents are asked to record any reading done at home in a home-school reading record which is monitored weekly. They are provided with question prompts and examples of praise to use when reading with their children. As children progress through school, we acknowledge that many children will be reading with greater independence and taking more responsibility for their learning. There are regular opportunities throughout the year for parents to purchase books including book fairs and book sales from visiting authors.

Reading Raffle

When the child reads with the teacher/TA they will be given a raffle ticket if their book is in school and the matching raffle ticket placed in the class piggy bank. If they do not have their book in school, they will be expected to read from an alternative book. They will not receive a raffle ticket in this case. There may be other opportunities for children to win raffle tickets e.g. holiday reading homework and competitions. Children will also receive a bonus raffle ticket if they have read at least 4 times consecutively at home. Once a week the raffles are drawn in each year group and the winning child receives a book prize.

Writing

Intent:

• To develop children as effective and competent communicators, in both spoken and written form, who leave our school with age appropriate communication skills, well prepared for the next stage of their education and beyond.
• We anticipate that children will be able to communicate their ideas and emotions to others through their writing.
• We aim to develop their love of literature and teach them to appreciate our rich and varied literary heritage through widespread reading for enjoyment and the inclusion of high quality, age appropriate texts as a stimulus for writing.
• For children to acquire a wide vocabulary and an understanding of grammatical terminology in order to discuss their own writing.
• We teach children to write clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences.
• We explicitly link speaking and listening and reading with writing.

Implementation:

• Teach writing in ways which are imaginative, practical, creative and purposeful.
• Use drama for learning as a teaching tool.
• Put writing at the heart of our curriculum.
• Provide appropriate contexts for writing.
• Provide age appropriate opportunities for children to write for different purposes.
• Model writing with the children’s ideas, as well as unpicking high quality examples of writing.
• Teach children to enhance the effectiveness of what they write, through the process of editing their own work and responding to feedback.
• Expose children to high-quality ambitious vocabulary and teach them how to select this appropriately for their own writing.
• Teach children grammatical terms and structures according to The National Curriculum, in context.
• Teach children how to spell accurately.
• Teach children to employ positive learning behaviours, taking pride in the presentation of their writing, as well as increasing the fluency with which they are able to write.

What our children say:

Engish Curriculum Documents