Reading
Intent
At The Alderton Infant School we recognise the importance of English as an interconnected subject. Our intent is that pupils apply their knowledge and skills in reading, spoken language and writing to all subjects within the curriculum which will enable them to access the wider world.
Reading
We intend our pupils to gain an enthusiasm for reading that will stay with our pupils throughout their lives, while also providing them with the skills needed to read fluently and confidently. We foster a love of reading through sharing and providing access to a wide range of high-quality reading materials. Phonics is taught following a sequenced progression of skills and is designed to build on previous learning to enable pupils to gain confidence and build fluency to be enthusiastic readers by the end of Key Stage 1.
Implementation
English is planned from the National Curriculum 2015 and content from the EYFS Framework supported by Development Matters 2021. Planning across all year groups includes Greater Depth opportunities which encourage pupils to apply their knowledge consistently, confidently and fluently.
Reading
We foster a love of reading through sharing and providing access to high quality reading materials. Reading is taught through daily phonics lessons, guided reading, one to one reading, shared reading, story time, whole class reading sessions and use of reading to develop knowledge in other subjects. Children are given opportunities to apply their phonic skills and build on their fluency using decodable books which closely follow the order of phonics taught.
In Key Stage 1 (Year 1 and 2) reading comprehension is taught and developed through direct whole class teaching sessions. These are sessions that are carefully planned by the teachers with a focus on vocabulary, inference, prediction, retrieval and sequencing. These sessions allow all children to access high-quality texts to support their comprehension skills. Guided Reading groups are used within Year 1 and continued into Year 2 where needed. Targeted interventions such as precision monitoring are also used to support any children who require it to reach end of year expectations.
Book corners in each classroom are inviting and accessible for children to develop reading for pleasure. In each year group, teachers will share 30 high quality fiction books from a ‘Fantastic 30’ list, or ‘Fantastic Five’ for each half term. These lists draw from a wide range of authors, cultures and styles and include dozens of firm favourites for both the children and staff. Lists are displayed in book corners and around the school. We also have a school library that the children regularly use and will take books home weekly to share with parents.
We enrich our curriculum by participating in World Book Day and the local library Reading Challenges are promoted and celebrated in class and assemblies. We have good links with the junior school which enables us to have previous opportunities for Year 3 children to read with EYFS children and Years 5 and 6 to read with KS1. As part of a rolling programme of weekly parent mornings, we provide the opportunity to allow children to showcase their reading skills to their parent/carer/grandparent in their classroom.
Impact
Staff teams work closely together to develop each child as a learner. We aim to close gaps in attainment by being ambitious for our most vulnerable pupils and removing barriers so they can achieve their best.
The impact on our children includes:
- raised achievement and understanding in spoken sentence structure
- increased range of vocabulary
- raised grammatical understanding in speech to impact on writing
- Transferrable writing skills across the curriculum
- Increased familiarity and knowledge of 90 high-quality books through the implementation of the Fantastic Five for each half term
- Increased fluency in reading through the use of carefully selected books matched to the phonics progression.
Reading at Home
Reading books are changed three times a week on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Children, with the support of their parents, are encouraged to log their reading onto their online reading diary via the BoomReader webpage or app. We ask that children read at least four times a week with their parents. Each week we award the reading cup to the class with the most children to have logged at least four times. Teacher's check the reading logs each week in order to support any families where reading is not logged regularly.
Guides for Parents to support using Boom Reader App
Our Fantastic 90 books
English Policy
Reading Documents
- Reading bands explained - updated Sept 2023.pdf
- Wordless book advice for parents.pdf
- example reading questions parents could ask.pdf
Book Swap
World Book Day