Mrs Bandara
Early Reading Lead
Snuggling up with a blanket and a good book makes me happy! I love to read Julia Donaldson stories to others and I think they are always so beautifully written, with very clever rhymes! The illustrations are always very interesting to look at, sometimes you find characters from other Julia Donaldson stories hiding in them! I love the story of The Gruffalo as the smallest character saves the day and shows how brave they can be regardless of size!
I am a big fan of Roald Dahl as I grew up listening to my teachers and parents reading them to me as a child. My favourite Roald Dahl story has to be Matilda and I loved it so much that I have seen the London Theatre performance of it!
Reading at Grampound with Creed
Intent - Why are we teaching this?
At Grampound with Creed, we want children to experience the excitement of choosing a new book or the great suspense of what may happen next ! We believe that reading is not only essential in enabling children to access the entire curriculum but it also allows their imagination and creativity to flourish. We promote a love of books and reading for enjoyment by allowing children the opportunity to become engrossed in good quality picture books and novels. Throughout English lessons and across other areas of the curriculum children are introduced to different texts that allow them to travel to wondrous places and be transported to far off lands. These rich reading experiences inspire and excite. Children are provided with the skills to enable them to decode and decipher words for themselves to help them to access a variety of texts.
Implementation - How is this being taught in the classroom?
In Key stage 1 children follow the Synthetics phonic reading programme Read Write inc. Pupils are taught daily in small focused groups and are taught by ‘stage’ not ‘age’ This means that children are assessed and grouped according to the correct level for them. Children are initially taught how to read the initial 40 + sounds and then they learn the alternative graphemes. Children develop a love of reading books by accessing a range of stories that are decodable and accessible at their level. They look at characters and plot and answer comprehension questions about what they are reading. The phonics books are matched to the child’s progress with red words and their ability to read speedy green words, fluently; without the need for Fred talk (sounding out each word).
As children read the stories over the recommended number of days their fluency and confidence increases. Some pupils may continue to access RWI if their decoding skills and fluency are not secure at the end of Key Stage 1.
Children are also encouraged to choose a library book to take home. This is a book that is not necessarily decodable but is for the child to share with an adult at home. This is purely for reading enjoyment and understanding. Children can choose from non– fiction and fiction and can be read to rather than them reading themselves.
Impact - What is the effect?
Children love reading
Children are able to talk about plot/ summarise a text that they have read.
Children are able to read a decodable text and can assess the whole curriculum
Children have a passion for reading different texts and sharing novels
Children know a rich range of vocabulary
Children attain a good level of sound knowledge in their phonics check
Children attain well at the end of Foundation stage, Key stage 1 and Key stage 2.
In Key Stage 2 children access the Accelerated Reader programme and they attend Whole Class Reading Sessions. In the Whole Class Reading sessions children are introduced to high quality texts/ extracts and video clips to allow them to answer a range of questions. These questions encourage them to retrieve and infer. The sessions look at vocabulary choices within a given example, punctuation and the characters or plot. Children discuss the texts as part of a group and have time to reflect on what they have read.
In Key Stage 2 children also use the Accelerated reader Programme. They are assessed on their comprehension through a main assessment and this generates their reading level. Children then read novels from their level and take a quiz to assess their comprehension skills. Children can monitor their word count and the number of quizzes that they have passed and taken to enable them to see their progress with reading.
Reading is celebrated with weekly certificates that are awarded in Collective Worship
Impact - What is the effect?
Children love reading
Children are able to talk about plot/ summarise a text that they have read.
Children are able to read a decodable text and can assess the whole curriculum
Children have a passion for reading different texts and sharing novels
Children know a rich range of vocabulary
Children can commence Secondary school with a good level of understanding/ access the Secondary curriculum.
Children attain well at the end of Foundation stage, Key stage 1 and Key stage 2.
Accelerated Reader
Children who are no longer on the RWI programme move on to the Accelerated Reader programme and have daily lessons as part of a whole class reading session. The children look at a range of text and question types. ( See the Whole Class Reading Progression document, linked at the bottom of the page)
Children on the AR programme complete a Star Reader assessment each half term to look at their reading and provide them with a reading level. The programme also enables staff to analyse the data created from the child's quiz and suggests their next steps.
Children on the Ar programme quiz at their pace on each book that they read. They complete this on an ipad and this enables them to track their progress and move up within their reading level ( ZPD)
Parent communication
Parents are provided with their children's most recent reading level and next steps at the beginning of each half term. They are provided with their reading target in their reading records to enable them to support their child at home.
Children on the RWI programme are provided with RWI resources to use at home to enable them to practise their sounds and red words at home.
Video links to home RWI videos are uploaded onto the class dojo pages to enable each RWI group to practise set sounds and speedy reading or red words. This helps to work in conjunction with the learning taking place in school that week, thus helping children to retain the sounds or words.
Children on the AR programme also have their next steps and how they can be supported at home.
All reading is celebrated and parents are encouraged to record any reading at home including but not limited to:
- reading a recipe/ cook book
- comics
- other novels or story books from the child's own collection at home
- visits to the library with parents/ carers
Reading for enjoyment
We run a weekly reading club afterschool, where the children like time to read and snuggle with cushions and their favourite teddy bear. The children look forward to buddy reading and reading different books as the reading club is open to all age groups.
We participate in World Book day and this year we celebrated it by wearing our Pyjamas to school We took part in many different activities including creating puppets to use in a puppet show and writing our own stories.