Welcome to our Reading page
“We shouldn’t teach great books; we should teach a love of reading.” B. F. Skinner
Intent
Learning to read is one of the most fundamental skills that your child will learn whilst at Luckwell Primary School. We intend to encourage all pupils to read widely across fiction, non-fiction and poetry to develop their knowledge of the world in which they live, to gain knowledge across the curriculum and develop their comprehension skills. It is our intention to ensure that, by the end of their primary education, all pupils are able to read fluently and have a deep-rooted appreciation and love of reading that they will carry throughout their lives and continue to allow them to be lifelong learners.
Implementation
Reading is taught, developed and embedded across the curriculum. In the Early Years, children are taught to identify letters and sounds through a systematic, synthetic phonics programme. For more information about how phonics is taught, please follow the link to our Phonics Page.
Whilst our children are taught to read for comprehension across all aspects of the curriculum throughout the school week, they also receive a dedicated daily reading session where they develop their fluency and comprehension skills.
In Key Stage 1, phonics continues to be taught and used as a reliable strategy for reading unknown words. Other reading skills are taught in whole class guided reading sessions.
In Key Stage 2, there is less focus on decoding (word reading) skills and a higher focus on understanding a range of text and embedding the key reading skills taught in Key Stage 1.
Children are explicitly taught the reading comprehension skills (outlined in the National Curriculum) through the use of reading VIPERS – Vocabulary, Inference, Prediction, Explanation, Retrieval and Sequencing/ Summarising.
Children in Reception and KS1 are assessed using Unlocking Letters and Sounds assessments and will have phonetically decodable reading books closely matched to their phonics knowledge.
Once children are secure in their phonics they are carefully assessed using a system called Benchmarking. Each child is benchmarked at different points across the year to ensure that all children are making progress. Benchmarking levels determine the colour banded book that a child should be reading and every child has an individual reading book.
Children have opportunities to read regularly to each other, teachers, and teaching assistants. The children progress through the scheme until they become "extended readers" at which point they can choose books from their class book corner or the library. We actively encourage parents to hear their children read every night and a Reading Record aids home/school dialogue in this area.
Reading is used as a stimulus for writing and evidence in books shows pupils’ excellent creative response to high quality texts. Engaging and aspirational whole school events have been established to encourage all children to become passionate readers e.g. Themed World Book Days; Taking part in the annual Bristol Reading Project.
As part of our growing reading culture, all class rooms will have a high quality book corner which is welcoming, encouraging and engaging. In addition, each class uses the first 15 minutes of the afternoon sessions as story time, where the class teacher reads a chosen book with their class. In the Early Years Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1 it will be a book used to develop their knowledge of vocabulary, their understanding of story narratives and may be linked to parts of their topics. In Key Stage 2, it may be the book that they are using as their writing stimulus.
Impact
Through the teaching of systematic phonics, our aim is for children to become fluent and confident word readers by the end of KS1.
As a Year 6 reader, transitioning into secondary school, we aspire that 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 and all areas of the curriculum.
We firmly believe that reading is the key to all learning and so the impact of our reading curriculum goes beyond the results of the statutory assessments.
Reading Challenges
You might like to try these reading bingo challenges or write a book review using a template below.
Reading Bingo Card - Reception
Book Review Template KS1 - try this or this
Book Review Template LKS2 - try this
Book Review Template UK2 - try this
- USEFUL READING LINKS
Below are links to various websites, organisations and apps that can support your child's development of reading at home. Please be aware that some may require you to sign up in order to receive the free resources.
For phonics, lots of phonics games to play for any of the phases your child might be learning can be found here.
- Oliver Jeffers (author of Lost and Found) will be reading one of his books a day for children. His videos can be found here.
- Oxford Owl have a free library which can be accessed here.
- First News: First News is a weekly newspaper aimed at 7 to 14-year-olds that aims to get kids talking about the news in an easy to understand and non-threatening way. They cover issues which are relevant to children and which specifically affect them as well as a range of fun stuff, such as entertainment, games, animals, sport and puzzles.
- Classic Children's Literature PDFs
- If your child has plenty of books to read, but needs something a little different, why not try some of these - there are 40 different book based actities to try.
Why not listen to stories being read?
- CLEP have brought together a range of children's authors such as Mini Grey and David Lucasto to read aloud their own picture books, which you can find here.
- Audible is offering children the opportunity to instantly stream an incredible collection of stories, including titles across six different languages, that will help them continue dreaming, learning, and just being kids.
- Storynory, offer a range of stories, from classics and fairtales to myths and legends.
Teaching ‘Reading Skills’ at Luckwell Primary School
What does this look like across the school?
Reading is at the heart of our curriculum. In EYFS and Year 1, considerable time is given over to the teaching of systematic phonics through whole-class direct teaching; small group guided sessions and a wide variety of spoken language and play activities. We are well resourced with a wide range of engaging, fully decodable phonics sets and greater depth/enrichment books to add further interest and variety or the child’s reading experience.
As children progress through the school, teacher assessment informs a carefully planned program of whole-class direct teaching and guided group sessions based around high quality texts selected from CLEP’s Power of Reading scheme.
Reading Expectations
- Each week, children should aim to read 5 times, which should be recorded in their reading record books.
- Reading should be with an adult whenever possible although independent reading still counts towards the weekly total.
- Spot checks are made by both the class teacher and head teacher.
Book Lists
Please find below book lists for Year 3/4 and Year 5/6 to help in selecting age appropriate books for home. If you would like any extra guidance, please speak to your child’s class teacher.
Comprehension questions
In Key Stage 2, there is a much greater focus on developing comprehension skills as children become competent with decoding. To support this, we would strongly encourage you to discuss your child’s reading with them throughout the school. In school, we have grouped the comprehension targets for each year group into 6 key areas known as ‘VIPERS’.
Please find below (see link) questions for these key skills which are appropriate for all of KS2. You will also find the curriculum objectives for each year group organised into the VIPERS skills.