Reading

From January 2022

Early Reading and Phonics

Intent

Phonics (reading and spelling)

At Heather Garth, we believe that all our children can become fluent readers and writers. This is why we teach reading through Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised, which is a systematic and synthetic phonics programme. We start teaching phonics in Nursery/Reception and follow the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised progression, which ensures children build on their growing knowledge of the alphabetic code, mastering phonics to read and spell as they move through school.

 At Heather Garth, we also model the application of the alphabetic code through phonics in shared reading and writing, both inside and outside of the phonics lesson and across the curriculum. We have a strong focus on language development for our children because we know that speaking and listening are crucial skills for reading and writing in all subjects. We encourage our children to see themselves as readers for both pleasure and purpose.

 Implementation

Foundations for phonics in Nursery

• We provide a balance of child-led and adult-led experiences for all children that meet the curriculum expectations for ‘Communication and language’ and ‘Literacy’. These include:
  • sharing high-quality stories and poems
  • learning a range of nursery rhymes and action rhymes
  • activities that develop focused listening and attention, including oral blending
  • attention to high-quality language.
• We ensure Nursery children are well prepared to begin learning grapheme-phoneme correspondences (GPCs) and blending in Reception.

Daily phonics lessons in Reception and Year 1

• We teach phonics for 30 minutes a day. In Reception, we build from 10-minute lessons, with additional daily oral blending games, to the full-length lesson as quickly as possible. Each Friday, we review the week’s teaching to help children become fluent readers.
• Children make a strong start in Reception: teaching begins in Week 2 of the Autumn term.
• We follow the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised expectations of progress:
  • Children in Reception are taught to read and spell words using Phase 2 and 3 GPCs, and words with adjacent consonants (Phase 4) with fluency and accuracy.
  • Children in Year 1 review Phase 3 and 4 and are taught to read and spell words using Phase 5 GPCs with fluency and accuracy.

Daily Keep-up lessons ensure every child learns to read

• Any child who needs additional practice has daily Keep-up support, taught by a fully trained adult. Keep-up lessons match the structure of class teaching, and use the same procedures, resources and mantras, but in smaller steps with more repetition, so that every child secures their learning.
• We timetable daily phonics lessons for any child in Year 2 or 3 who is not fully fluent at reading or has not passed the Phonics Screening Check. These children urgently need to catch up, so the gap between themselves and their peers does not widen. We use the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised assessments to identify the gaps in their phonic knowledge and teach to these using the Keep-up resources – at pace.
• If any child in Year 3 to 6 has gaps in their phonic knowledge when reading or writing, we plan phonics ‘catch-up’ lessons to address specific reading/writing gaps. These short, sharp lessons last 10 minutes and take place at least three times a week.

Teaching reading: Reading practice sessions three times a week

• We teach children to read through reading practice sessions three times a week. These:
  • are taught by a fully trained adult to small groups of approximately six children
  • use books matched to the children’s secure phonic knowledge using the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised assessments and book matching grids on pages 11–20 of ‘Application of phonics to reading’
  • are monitored by the class teacher, who rotates and works with each group on a regular basis.
• Each reading practice session has a clear focus, so that the demands of the session do not overload the children’s working memory. The reading practice sessions have been designed to focus on three key reading skills:
  • decoding
  • prosody: teaching children to read with understanding and expression
  • comprehension: teaching children to understand the text.
• In Reception these sessions start in Week 4. Children who are not yet decoding have daily additional blending practice in small groups, so that they quickly learn to blend and can begin to read books.
• In Year 2 and 3, we continue to teach reading in this way for any children who still need to practise reading with decodable books.

Beyond Phonics

At the point where Phase 6 reading takes place children are reading to learn. The emphasis is on the key skills of retrieval of information, answering higher order and inference questions which form a key part of any reading session.

Home reading

• Phonics- The decodable reading packs are taken home to ensure success is shared with the family.
  • Reading for pleasure books also go home for parents to share and read to children.
  • We use the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised parents’ resources to engage our families and share information about phonics, the benefits of sharing books, how children learn to blend and other aspects of our provision, both online and through workshops.
• Children are allocated a specific day to change their books and have their planner signed by an adult in school. In order to be entered into the weekly reading raffle draw the children need to:
   
  FS and KS1 (Y1 and Y2)- Read on 4 separate days over the 7 day period and sign this in their planners to show the date the book was read and which book/pages they have read. E.g. If their reading change day is Wednesday, between Wednesday-Wednesday they need to have read on 4 separate days and signed this in their planners. This can be supported by yourselves. 
   
  KS2 (Y3, Y4, Y5 and Y6)- Read on 4 separate days over the 7 day period and sign their planners to show the date the book was read and which book/pages they have read plus complete 1 book review per week. E.g. If their reading change day is Wednesday, between Wednesday-Wednesday they need to have read on 4 separate days and signed this in their planners, plus they need to have completed 1 book review. This can be supported by yourselves, however as they move through KS2 they should be completing this with greater independence.
   
  We recommend reading for around 10-15 minutes each time.  

Additional reading support for vulnerable children

• Children in Reception and Year 1 who are receiving additional phonics Keep-up sessions read their reading practice book to an adult daily.

Ensuring consistency and pace of progress

• Every teacher in our school has been trained to teach reading, so we have the same expectations of progress. We all use the same language, routines and resources to teach children to read so that we lower children’s cognitive load.
• Weekly content grids map each element of new learning to each day, week and term for the duration of the programme.
• Lesson templates, Prompt cards and How to videos ensure teachers all have a consistent approach and structure for each lesson.
• The Reading Leader and SLT use the Audit and Prompt cards to regularly monitor and observe teaching; they use the summative data to identify children who need additional support and gaps in learning.

Ensuring reading for pleasure

‘Reading for pleasure is the single most important indicator of a child’s success.’ (OECD 2002)

‘The will influences the skill and vice versa.’ (OECD 2010)

We value reading for pleasure highly and work hard as a school to grow our Reading for Pleasure pedagogy.

• We read to children every day. We choose these books carefully as we want children to experience a wide range of books, including books that reflect the children at Heather Garth and our local community as well as books that open windows into other worlds and cultures.
• In Nursery/Reception, children have access to the reading corner every day in their free flow time and the books are continually refreshed. All classes in school also have a book corner area where children can browse and borrow books to red both at home or at school.
• Children from Reception onwards have a home school planner. The parent/carer records comments to share with the adults in school and the adults will write in this on a regular basis to ensure communication between home and school.
• As the children progress through the school, they are encouraged to write their own comments and keep a list of the books/authors that they have read.
• Each class visits the school library weekly.
• Children across the school have regular opportunities to engage with a wide range of Reading for Pleasure events (book fairs, author visits and workshops, national events etc).

Impact

Pupils will make good progress from their own personal starting points. By the end of Year Six they will be able to read fluently and widely. They can apply their phonic knowedleg to spelling. They have a wide vocabualry and can draw on this to support them with writing effectively, enaging the reader.  . Most importantly, they will develop a love of reading and be well equipped for the rest of their education. 

Assessment

Assessment is used to monitor progress and to identify any child needing additional support as soon as they need it.

• Assessment for learning is used:
  • daily within class to identify children needing Keep-up support
  • weekly in the Review lesson to assess gaps, address these immediately and secure fluency of GPCs, words and spellings.
• Summative assessment is used:
  • every six weeks to assess progress, to identify gaps in learning that need to be addressed, to identify any children needing additional support and to plan the Keep-up support that they need.
  • by SLT and scrutinised through the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised assessment tracker, to narrow attainment gaps between different groups of children and so that any additional support for teachers can be put into place.

Statutory assessment

• Children in Year 1 sit the Phonics Screening Check. Any child not passing the check re-sits it in Year 2.

Ongoing assessment

• Children in Year 2 to 6 are assessed through their teacher’s ongoing formative assessment as well as through the half-termly Little Wandle Letters and Sound for those accessing the catch up programme

Whole Class Teaching (Outside of/Beyond Phonics lessons)

Reading is a fundamental part of the learning experience at Heather Garth Primary Academy and the pupils are given a variety of reading opportunities, including:

• Small group Guided Reading sessions
• Whole Class Reading Comprehension sessions based on the Jane Considine Hooked on Books approach
• Regular independent reading
• Home/school reading
• Hearing appropriately challenging age-apporpriare texts read aloud on a daily basis
• Cross curricular reading
• Weekly access to the school's well-stocked library whjere children can borrow books to read in school/at home

Much of the programme of study is taught through dedicated Reading lessons, English lessons and guided reading sessions. There is time set aside for independent reading, listening to whole class stories and research linked to other subjects. Reading is a skill, which underpins a child’s ability to access the wider curriculum and allows them to broaden their vocabulary and develop vivid imaginations. To ensure that pupils at Athersley South are given the best chance to succeed, we ensure that pupils are given daily reading opportunities that build skills in fluency and comprehension and additional reading for pleasure time.

Pupils experience whole-class reading throughout Reading Comprehension sessions. Teachers may also choose a range of quality texts that may be linked to the Wider Curriculum.  In addition to this, pupils will be given opportunities to use and apply their reading skills across all subject areas of the Wider Curriculum. We intend to encourage all pupils to read widely across both fiction and non-fiction to develop their knowledge of themselves and the world in which they live, to establish an appreciation and love of reading, to gain knowledge across the curriculum and develop their comprehension skills.

We actively encourage children to read for pleasure through a variety of ways including the school library space, frequent book fairs and celebrating world book day. We offer a range of workshops to support parents in developing their children’s reading and phonics development.

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