Reading
At Elworth, our aim is to encourage a love of reading from an early age. From Reception, children are immersed in reading through storytelling, promoting the development of imagination and language which helps them to develop for the rest of their lives. All children in school are read to regularly by an adult, as well as sharing texts and reading together. Reading feeds pupils’ imagination and opens up a universe of wonder and joy for curious young minds and therefore is the key to developing successful learners who can access all areas of the curriculum and have a wide ranging vocabulary.
The programmes of study for reading at key stages 1 and 2 consist of 3 dimensions:
- word reading
- vocabulary
- comprehension (both listening and reading)
It is essential that teaching focuses on developing pupils’ competence in all three dimensions; different kinds of teaching are needed for each element.
Children in EYFS and Key Stage 1 read regularly with an adult, encouraging them to establish robust decoding skills to access the written word. Comprehension skills will also taught alongside this, to ensure that children understand what they read and can apply their decoding skills. As children progress in to Key Stage 2, more emphasis is placed on reading comprehension, developing higher level skills as children develop their reading abilities, such as inference and deduction. As they progress through school, all pupils are encouraged to read widely across both fiction and non-fiction to develop their knowledge of themselves and the world they live in, to establish an appreciation and love of reading, and to gain knowledge across the curriculum.
Organisation
In EYFS and KS1, children begin to read through a series of progressive books, based on the Read, Write Inc scheme of books which closely link to the child's phonics learning. Children are encouraged to re-read at home daily in order to develop their reading fluency and embed learning.
During Year 2, many children will still be learning to read through Read Write Inc as they become more confident and fluent readers.
Once they have completed the RWI scheme, they then move onto the Read Write Inc Comprehension, which is designed to get them reading and understanding longer words and texts. The booklets have been designed to give them a solid foundation of reading for comprehension skills, so that they are then able to become free readers who can engage with a text on a deeper level. Pupils and parents have access to Oxford Owl and the RWI portal, which gives them free phonics resources which are matched to their current reading stage and supports them on their individual reading journey.
At the same time, these children will progress onto our Accellerated Reader program. This system enables children gain access to a wide range of high quality published books and complete online quizzes to check their understanding. Teachers can check their scores and use this to guide and encourage children's reading at home and in school. Children are encouraged to keep reading regularly at home throughout Key Stage 2, with a minimum expectation of 30 minutes, 3 times a week.
To find out if the book you are reading is on Accelerated Reader please click on the link below:
https://www.arbookfind.co.uk/UserType.aspx?RedirectURL=%2fdefault.aspx
We have introduced Steps to Read across the school, which is a whole class, shared reading for comprehension program delivered daily. In Early Years and Year 1, the effort of reading longer fiction and non-fiction texts is taken away form the children by the teacher, who reads the texts and engages the children in the text through questioning and hunting for clues. From Year 2 and beyond, the children and the teacher share the responsiblity of reading and exploring the text together and answer questions to develop confident comprehension skills.
It is essential that, by the end of their primary education, all pupils are able to read fluently, and with confidence, to give them all the greatest chance of success for their forthcoming secondary and further education.
Reading For Pleasure
This school not only wants to develop confident readers, but also instil in our children a love of reading. We understand that children who love reading, and read a wide range of texts, go on to lead successful lives. They are vocabulary rich, their imaginations are provoked, they are critical thinkers and they are able to engage confidently with the wider world. The benfits of being a reader for pleasure have positive personal, social and external outcomes for later life.
At Elworth, we have a reading rich culture and teachers share their passion for stories and texts daily with the children in their care. Our library and social reading spaces, encourage children and grown-ups to choose to read. The library is a well-stocked and updated to reflect what our children want to read. Reading competitions, special events and of course, World Book Day raise the profile of reading, and get children thinking about books.
Our Reading Buddies, who are a team of dedicated Parents and Grandparents, visit school regularly and read with some of our children who need a little extra help to become the confident readers they want to be.
Useful website:
Click on a favourite author and find books that are similar.