Reading

Children are immersed in books and reading as soon as they join us in the Nursery. Through this children begin to learn that print contains meaning and that reading and books are exciting and fun.

 

In Reception the children begin to participate in small group guided reading sessions each week. In these sessions children begin to develop their early reading skills with simple texts which gradually increase in difficulty. They focus on decoding the text and understanding what is happening; in order to do this successfully the children use a range of skills including applying phonic and word knowledge, using the context of the book and knowledge of grammatical structures to check what they are reading makes sense.

 

As they move through Year 1 and Year 2 they continue to hone these skills in small group guided reading sessions twice a week with an adult. In addition to this they do independent reading response activities which further develop the skills they have practiced in their guided group. The balance of the focus during lessons also moves from basic decoding to comprehension skills. A small group of children who have been identified as struggling also take part in an additional 1:1 intensive programme, FFT Wave 3, with a teaching assistant for 30 minutes every day. For the majority of the children who take part in this programme the gap is narrowed and they are able to read at the age related expectation - those who don't make adequate progress are referred on to the SENDCo for additional support.

 

Through Year 3, 4, 5 and 6 children continue to work in guided groups with an adult, twice a week. Children have time to read the text before the session so that the guided session focuses on developing higher order comprehension skills; using inference and deduction, explaining the effect on the reader of an author's choice of words and looking at the structure of a text.

 

Every class spends approximately 10 minutes a day sharing a class text which is read primarily for enjoyment but is also used to reinforce skills learned in guided reading.

 

In addition to our focused work in Stay and Read every Wednesday morning from 8:50am to 9:20am. All children are encouraged to read at home and as an incentive books are given as rewards for regular reading at home and attendance at Stay and Read. Every child receives a book at Christmas and books are given as prizes at each end of term Governors' assembly and in our weekly attendance raffle.lessons we strive to instil a love of reading and books in all of our children. Parents and other family members are invited to join us for