English – Reading

Download: National Curriculum English

Curriculum Intent

At Leighterton Primary School, we recognise that reading allows pupils to develop culturally, emotionally, intellectually, socially and spiritually. Reading also enables pupils to both acquire knowledge and build on what they already know. Having all the skills of language are essential to allowing pupils to participate fully as members of society. Pupils who learn to read fluently and confidently are at an advantaged in their future lives. 

We aim to promote high standards of language and literacy by equipping pupils with a strong understanding of the written word and to develop a love of literature through widespread reading for enjoyment.

Through teaching of reading we will

• Meet the requirements of the national curriculum programmes of study for reading both word reading and comprehension through the school.
• Use a systematic, synthetic phonics programme (ELS- Essential Letters and Sounds) to teach early reading
• Develop pupils’ understanding of wide range of vocabulary
• Encourage enjoyment of reading and a lifelong love of reading
• Provide a broad, balanced, challenging and enjoyable curriculum for all pupils.
• Equip pupils with the confidence and skills to read confidently, audibly, fluently and with understanding
• Discuss texts and read for a range of purposes
• Enhance and enrich learning in other curriculum areas by cross-curricular reading and research

The curriculum puts a clear emphasis on two areas of learning:

• Word recognition
• Comprehension

Reading Implementation 

At Leighterton Primary School we teach reading as both discrete lessons and well as part of English lessons. These skills are applied and practised across the curriculum and through home activities.

How is reading taught?

Children use the ‘ELS’ phonic scheme for the order in which sounds are introduced. This is mapped through both Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) and Year 1 to ensure that the sounds are built on progressively through the classes. Children take home phonically decodable books from ‘Essential Letters and Sounds’ which are selected by the teacher and match their phonics stage for reading and their knowledge of ‘harder to read and spell words’. Children will have the same phonics book for a week in order for them to build up reading fluency. To ensure children develop a love of reading, they will also take home other books and stories to be shared with an adult at home to enable them to enjoy and discuss a wider range of texts.

Word recognition

In the early stages of reading, the children’s phonic knowledge is developed systematically. In EYFS, the teaching of phonics starts at the beginning of the year through daily discrete phonics lessons, following the ELS teaching sequence. They also learn to read on sight ‘harder to read and spell words’ cannot be decoded at their current phonic level. These skills are applied across the curriculum. Children who need extra support to keep up have additional in-class intervention during phonics lessons.

During Year 1, children continue to be taught using the ELS teaching sequence and have both daily discrete phonics lessons and guided reading groups. They continue learn to read ‘harder to read and spell words’ and learn alternative graphemes that represent the same phoneme. They also continue to learn about graphemes which can make different phonemes. Children who need extra support to keep up have additional in-class intervention during phonics lessons.

By the start of Year 2, it is expected that most children are able to decode unfamiliar words accurately. Children who do not meet the required standard are monitored and provided with additional support during Year 2 and continue to take home books matched to their phonics stage for reading. During Year 2, children will develop their reading strategies as they start to read a wider range of books that may not always contain completely phonetically decodable words or rarer graphemes. Children will further develop their skills of reading with increasing fluency and automaticity. Books that go home will reflect this and children will be able to choose from a selection of books matching their growing fluency.

During Key Stage 2, any pupils who are still struggling to decode will continue to be taught using the ELS phonics programme addressing their needs through additional intervention. Children who are reading below the age-expected range of their class are given additional support and home readers will continue to be carefully monitored to ensure they are at the correct level. In class, children’s selections of books are monitored to ensure they continue to build their fluency with increasing difficulties of text and they take a greater role in selecting their own books to read.

Reading Comprehension

Across the school, reading comprehension is taught through a variety of activities and is linked to a range of quality class texts. Every class has a key text for English units of work which may link to the class’ topic, story times; English lesson activities which involve reading comprehension; and independent reading time. From Year 2, children take part in daily whole class guided reading sessions which have a ficus on fluency, extended or close reading. Children who are struggling with comprehension skills receive additional support.  

Children who are struggling to decode independently and fluently, follow their correct programme of study in terms of exposure to new books, hearing and learning new vocabulary and grammatical structures, and discussing these. However, ensuring that they improve their fluency through appropriate targeted support is the priority.

Children are encouraged to read at home with an aim of at least four reads a week.

Curriculum Impact

Children will leave Leighterton Primary School being literate; appreciating the enjoyment that reading can bring; and with a good understanding of what they read. They will be equipped, not only with the skills to read effectively but to be able to apply these in their everyday lives and in their next stages of education- for research, information and to explore the world. The most important impact we want for our children is that they develop a love of reading.

Through the progressive reading assessment statements, the teaching team know which children have met or have not yet met the expected outcomes for their year group and can use these to plan teaching sequences and interventions. Additionally, during EYFS and Year 1 children’s phonics knowledge is tracked to ensure any gaps are quickly addressed to ensure all children meet the required standard- continuing into Year 2 or beyond where required. Our curriculum is designed to be sequential, building on areas worked on in previous years, allowing children to continuously build on their skills. Our expectations are high and we aim to equip children to use reading skills throughout their lives academically and socially.

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