English - Reading

Intent

At Meavy C of E Primary we are passionate about reading, which lies at the heart of our curriculum. We are dedicated to enabling our pupils to become lifelong readers and we believe reading is key for academic success. Reading is taught not only in specific Reading lessons but across the wider curriculum too. We provide language-rich classroom environments and a curriculum where children are exposed to, and actively engage with, high quality language in varying forms in a meaningful, deliberate and engaging way. Language acquisition and its use is at the core of all the reading, writing and communication we expect of our pupils. 

We aim to develop a love of reading in all our children.  We provide children with the reading skills they need to read a broad range of texts. By the end of Key Stage One, our children will already be successful, fluent decoders through the delivery of consistent high quality, systematic synthetic phonics teaching from EYFS until the end of KS1.  They understand that they use their phonics knowledge as the first tool when tackling new words in reading and writing. They will also have a growing understanding of text meaning which will be further developed during Key Stage 2.  Children will leave Meavy as competent readers, who can recommend books to their peers, have a thirst for reading a wide range of high-quality texts across the genres, participate in discussions about books and have an established love of reading for life.

Implementation

Every child will experience a full range of reading experiences during their time in school from reading with an adult 1-2-1, reading in small groups of similar ability children and as part of a whole class lesson. Our younger children in EYFS and KS1 will read routinely as individuals with an adult in a 1-2-1 session. This will allow adults to attend to the needs of the individual child. After following the Little Wandle phonics programme, they move on to reading phonically decodable texts before moving onto book bands at the end of Stage 5.  Some children in KS2 will also continue to have 1-2-1 support. Small Group sessions will focus on reading a text suited to the children in the group which allows them to develop decoding, fluency and comprehension skills.

Whole class guided reading will allow children to all read a text matched to the expected level for their year group. Again, within this lesson children will have the opportunity to read independently and work on comprehension skills.

Teachers regularly read with the children, modelling reading. The children get to know and love all sorts of stories, poetry and information books.  This is in addition to the books that they bring home.  This helps to extend children’s vocabulary and comprehension, as well as supporting their writing.

Impact

By the time children leave Meavy C of E Primary they are competent readers who can recommend books to their peers, have a thirst for reading a range of genres including poetry, and participate in discussions about books, including evaluating an author’s use of language and the impact this can have on the reader.  They can also read books to enhance their knowledge and understanding of all subjects on the curriculum, and communicate their research to a wider audience.