Reading is at the very heart of our entire curriculum.
As reading is a complex skill with many components, Catton Grove Primary School have developed a comprehensive approach to the teaching of reading throughout the school. We believe that reading is a valuable and rewarding experience, and that the importance of laying a firm foundation in this most crucial of all areas will allow children to access all aspects of the curriculum successfully.
We know that success in reading opens doors to a world of knowledge. It is our belief that the appreciation and enjoyment of a rich variety of high-quality books is fundamental to every child’s education, and our reading culture is something that we are proud of.
OUR AIMS
To develop a love of books and reading.
To develop reading strategies and skills: fluency, accuracy, understanding and response to different texts.
To read and enjoy a variety of texts from a variety of sources.
To create a strong, embedded reading culture through a language-rich environment within classrooms and the school as a whole.
To deliver a carefully planned and structured approach to the teaching of reading that allows every child to succeed.
To recognise the value of parents and carers as essential components in supporting and developing children’s comprehension skills and passion for reading.
To rigorously monitor and assess children’s progress in reading, and identify those who require extra support and intervention.
Nursery - Stage 1
Children entering nursery will experience Stage 1 of the CGPS Phonic Programme throughout the year.
Aspect 1 - General sound discrimination - environmental
The aim of this aspect is to raise children's awareness of the sounds around them and to develop their listening skills. Activities suggested in the guidance include going on a listening walk, drumming on different items outside and comparing the sounds, playing a sounds lotto game and making shakers.
Aspect 2 - General sound discrimination - instrumental sounds
This aspect aims to develop children's awareness of sounds made by various instruments and noise makers. Activities include comparing and matching sound makers, playing instruments alongside a story and making loud and quiet sounds.
Aspect 3 - General sound discrimination - body percussion
The aim of this aspect is to develop children's awareness of sounds and rhythms. Activities include singing songs and action rhymes, listening to music and developing a sounds vocabulary.
Aspect 4 - Rhythm and rhyme
This aspect aims to develop children's appreciation and experiences of rhythm and rhyme in speech. Activities include rhyming stories, rhyming bingo, clapping out the syllables in words and odd one out.
Aspect 5 - Alliteration
The focus is on initial sounds of words, with activities including I-Spy type games and matching objects which begin with the same sound.
Aspect 6 - Voice sounds
The aim is to distinguish between different vocal sounds and to begin oral blending and segmenting. Activities include Metal Mike, where children feed pictures of objects into a toy robot's mouth and the teacher sounds out the name of the object in a robot voice - /c/-/u/-/p/ cup, with the children joining in.
Aspect 7 - Oral blending and segmenting
In this aspect, the main aim is to develop oral blending and segmenting skills.
To practise oral blending, the teacher could say some sounds, such as /c/-/u/-/p/ and see whether the children can pick out a cup from a group of objects. For segmenting practise, the teacher could hold up an object such as a sock and ask the children which sounds they can hear in the word sock.
The activities introduced in Stage 1 are intended to continue throughout the following Stages, as lots of practice is needed before children will become confident in their phonic knowledge and skills.
In the summer term, the children in the academic nursery year will be exposed to Set 1 letter sounds through games and rhymes. They will learn to recognise and begin to write their name.
Reception – Stage 2
Once the children have entered Reception, they will begin to be taught the letter (grapheme) that matches the sound (phoneme). They will be taught Set 1 and Set 2 sounds. Alongside this they will be taught Set 1, 2 and 3 high frequency words (words that can be sounded out and are frequently used) and tricky words (words that need to be looked at and learnt). They will be taught consonant blends and vowels during the summer term. Taught sounds and words will be recapped daily through the use of flashcards. Teaching will be fast-paced, focused and direct and differentiated within classes. Writing will be recorded daily in phonics jotters. The children will move on to orally segment and blend words. Children are taught the letter names.
A range of techniques and approaches are used to enable the children to practise word building. As the children progress, they are introduced to further letter sounds including digraphs and trigraphs. More tricky and high frequency words are introduced.
Once the children are able to write simple words, they are taught to write labels, captions and short sentences. This will include being taught basic punctuation (capital letters, finger spaces and full stops) and how to recognise what makes a good sentence.
Year 1 – Stage 3
In Year 1 the children will recap Set 1, Set 2 and 3 sounds and Set 1, 2 and 3 words. They will be taught Set 4 sounds (alternative pronunciations), Set 4 high frequency words and tricky words and the Year 1 common exception words. Taught sounds and words will be recapped daily through the use of flashcards. Teaching will be fast-paced, focused and direct. Differentiation will be across the year group and writing will be recorded daily in phonics jotters. Once all sets have been taught, and revised, the children will progress on to applying their knowledge through Phonics Story Books.
The children will investigate spelling patterns and rules to enable them to spell a wider range of vocabulary, applying the rules they have been taught. During Stage 3, children will also learn the letter names, although they will continue to use the sounds when decoding words and high frequency words. They will also be taught tricky words.
Year 2 - Stage 4
In Year 2, children will revisit sets 1-3 of sounds, where appropriate, and sets 1-4 of HFW and Tricky words. They will be taught Year 2 common exception words. Taught words will be recapped daily through the use of flashcards. Teaching will be fast-paced, focused and direct. Differentiation will be across the year group and writing will be recorded daily in phonics jotters. Once all sets have been taught, and revised, the children will progress on to applying their knowledge through Phonics Story Books where appropriate.
SPAG will form part of phonics and will include suffixes, prefixes, tense, compound words, apostrophes, homophones, near homophones, conjunctions, sentences of different forms and expanded noun phrases.
The children will investigate spelling patterns and rules to enable them to spell a wider range of vocabulary, applying the rules they have been taught.
Children continue to write sentences. They will be taught to apply punctuation (capital letters, finger spaces, full stops, apostrophes, commas, question marks, exclamations marks etc.) and how to add effect and interest to writing through the use of different word classes (adjectives, nouns, verbs, adverbs).
Children in all year groups are sent home a reading book weekly that compliments the phonics phase that they are working on. Copies of letter sounds for that week are also sent home in Reception and Year 1.
Reception and KS1 are assessed formatively throughout the year; any gaps in knowledge are addressed through planning and, where necessary, small group/individual intervention.
Our Foundation Stage & KS1 Reading Spine
Alongside the study of phonics through the CGPS Phonics Programme, we begin to foster an appreciation and love of books at the earliest stages of our pupils’ education.
We carefully select a variety of picture books to share with our pupils during story times. During Reception, we begin to use these texts to inspire writing and to support oral/written storytelling.
In Year 1, we have developed whole-class, shared reading lessons using some of these texts that have significantly improved fluency and engagement in books amongst our pupils.
Moving in to Year 2, our pupils begin to develop their comprehension skills through independent access of longer texts.
KEY STAGE 2
We have developed an exciting, engaging reading curriculum at KS2 in which core reading comprehension skills are taught through a wide variety of high quality texts.
This ensures that vocabulary-rich, enchanting narratives are the driving force behind the teaching and learning of reading comprehension skills.
Each lesson has a particular skills-focus, driven by the
‘Reading Vipers’.
This has ensured that pupils are aware of, and can begin to articulate, the specific skills needed to understand challenging, ambitious texts.
The reading spine that runs through KS2 ensures progression and enthusiasm for reading, finely balancing raising the profile of reading with a systematic approach to improving comprehension.
Lessons take a ‘My turn—Our Turn—Your Turn’ Approach. Just as in writing sessions, the modelling of how a skill is applied is essential to pupils’ understanding of it.
Each lessons’ focus will be introduced at the beginning of the session, along with any steps to success and clarification of the particular comprehension skill.
The teacher will display a page from the current class text and model reading aloud. As they are doing so, the teacher will also model ’thinking aloud’ - saying out loud what is happening in the readers’ head in the moment of reading. When pupils do this themselves, it better enables them to visualise, make connections, find clues and generally get the ‘GIST’ of that section/chapter of the book.
After reading the initial extract, teachers then model the steps needed by completing an example question using the skills required. The teacher will then guide the class and complete an example ‘together’, using the same extract. Once the whole-class input is complete, pupils can then independently apply the skill using a new extract/section from the book and new questions/tasks. This is suitably differentiated where appropriate.
A week of learning often focuses on one skill (retrieval, inference etc). The VIPER skills are rotated, and the next time a previously taught skill is encountered, pupils are challenged to embed and build upon previous learning. Lessons can then begin to synthesise multiple comprehension skills when applicable.
KS2 Reading Spine
Year 3
Year 4
Year 5
Year 6
Pupils in Year 3, 4 and 5 take part in the Accelerated Reader programme. It is an interactive reading scheme that targets pupils’ specific reading abilities. Pupils select an ‘Accelerated Reader’ book to take home. Pupils select this book from within their designated reading range, or ZPD level (eg. 2.2-2.9).
The library has a large ‘Accelerated Reader’ section, in which books are colour-coded to indicate which level of book pupils can choose from. Pupils’ colour code and ZPD are noted at the front of their reading record books so that pupils, parents and staff are aware. Many
Pupils also select a free-choice reading book to take home too.
The ZPD is determined by a STAR test that pupils undertake at the start of the programme and at regular intervals throughout the year. This assessment will determine the pupils’ reading age, level of progress and also highlights specific areas for further reading development.
After pupils have read an Accelerated Reader book, pupils use Accelerated Reader sessions in school to take an end of book ‘Quiz’. Quizzes are taken on the AR iPad app. Pupils aim for a pass rate of 80% in the quiz; when quizzes are successfully passed, the pupils earn ‘points’ on their Accelerated Reader account that build up over the course of the year. The accumulation of points (incrementally increasing from 0.5) results in certificates, awards and a sense of achievement in a fun, interactive way.
Assessment
We use a range of formative and summative assessments throughout the year to closely monitor pupils’ progress in reading. GAP analyses are undertaken to ensure that assessment of reading informs the planning and teaching of future lessons.
Celebrating and promoting reading
We are continually developing a strong reading culture within the school and celebrate reading throughout the year. Events such as World Book Day, Book Fortnight and National Poetry Day are given prominence and profile during library sessions, assembly time and in class.
There are numerous displays around the school that celebrate pupils’ favourite books and books that they are currently reading in class. In addition, year groups arrange reading and rhyme cafes that allow parents and carers to be more closely involved with their child’s reading.
Professional authors visit the school each year to further inspire our pupils.
Library
Our library is the hub of reading in our school and is one of the primary ways in which we promote reading for pleasure across KS1 and KS2. We believe in the celebration of literature, the promotion of books, and offering our pupils an interactive literary experience.
There is a wide variety of fiction and non-fiction texts for pupils to explore - over 12,000 in fact - and all pupils have regular access to the library. Independence is promoted in that pupils explore the library and make their own decisions about which books to take home, either for the Accelerated Reader initiative or for free-reading choices.