Reading

Reading at Portfields Primary School

Portfields Primary School Reading Strategy

Our Strategic Approach

At Portfields Primary School we prioritise the ‘simple view of reading,’ children being able to read words/text and understand what they have read. We are determined that every child will learn to read fluently and develop a life-long love for reading by the end of their Portfields’ journey.  We believe that reading is a key life skill and the ability to read is fundamental to succeed in education and empower future learning.

A Portfields’ child will:

• have a desire to read widely for both pleasure and information;

• read with confidence, fluency and understanding;

• develop a wider vocabulary and knowledge of the world to broaden their horizons.

We use a range of strategies, in addition to phonics, such as a variety of decoding methods, teaching high frequency words through sight recognition, discussion through picture books and high quality interventions.

Our school works with external partnerships and through the many connections such as inspirational writers/authors. It allows us to improve and enhance our resources and inspire our pupils to love reading.

Through a Portfields’ Reading Passport, children are deliberately exposed to a whole school reading spine that combines classics and essential reads to build a common bank of stories that binds the Portfields’ reading community together.

Reading volunteers, including Pedro – our reading dog - to enhance our reading provision every week hearing our vulnerable readers.

Talk for Reading develops our children into efficient, effective, thoughtful and strategic readers who can learn about life, discover information and deepen their thinking through considering other people’s views and experiences with a critical mind.

In addition, from EYFS to Yr6, reading is taught through a carousel of activities during ERIC (Everyone Reading in Class) sessions. These activities include reading with a teacher or teaching assistant, reading for pleasure, vocabulary activities and written comprehensions.

One to one reading occurs in EYFS and vulnerable readers are identified in each class to ensure reading progression and a love of reading.

At Portfields, we aim to develop a whole community culture of reading, so children are encouraged to read for pleasure at home and school. Teachers read a variety of high-quality texts to the children daily through ‘storytime’.

Portfields Primary School Reading Strategy

Our aim is that every child leaves Portfields Primary School with:

• a desire to read widely for both pleasure and information;
• the ability to read with confidence, fluency and understanding;
• a wider vocabulary and knowledge of the world to broaden their horizons.

Daily Reading Lesson

• EYFS / Y1 – daily Twinkl phonics lessons
• Y2 – Twinkl lessons moving to ERIC sessions
• KS2 – Daily ERIC and Talk for Reading Sessions
• All classes have Talk for Reading sessions at least 4 times a week

Reading Practice

• Teachers will listen to all children read at least once a week
• Teachers will have 1:1 reading sessions with identified children
• Reading volunteers will listen to children read to practise their fluency
• KS2 reading buddies will listen to younger children read practise their fluency

Children Read to Daily

• EYFS / KS1 / KS2 – ‘ Storytime’ daily class read to the class

Reading for Pleasure in Class

• Mini libraries in each class of quality books to engage emotions; be diverse; show different perspectives. 
• Library time in the Space Library (EYFS and KS1) and Jungle Library (KS2)

Reading Records

• Completed at home (and in school for EYFS) to share the love of a new story

Independent Reading Time

• Class sets of high-quality reading books, reading books chosen by children, comics and subscriptions

Promote a Community Culture of Reading

• Teachers model a love of reading and are excited about books
• A wide range of authors and genres are discussed
• Opportunities to share books, opinions and authors
• Family and community reading days
• Activities such as World Book Day, author visits (in school and online) promote our reading culture
• Reading Ambassadors from Year 6 support the culture as role models to share, read and listen to younger readers.

Reading At Home

• Reading books are sent home and changed as appropriate
• Parent support sessions to give tips on reading at home
• Additional support will be given to children/families who require it.

Reading Every Lesson

• Teaching sequences linked to quality texts and novels
• Reading and integration of texts incorporated where possible into all lessons
• Quality modelling and engaging with texts as a Historian, a Geographer, a Scientists etc

Catch Up and Interventions

Some children may require additional support in Reading for identified children
This is achieved by:

• Additional phonics
• 1:1 reading
• Small group work (Lexplore)
• Small group book sharing to develop retrieval, inference and comprehension
• High quality FREE books for all PP children and SEND
• Diversity and equality in all books
• Opportunities for children to listen to, act out and discuss stories
• Opportunities for children to tell stories
• Stories read by teachers, adults, authors, visitors (including audio books and Author visits)

Phonics and Early Reading

At Portfields Primary School we follow the Twinkl scheme of phonics.

We undertook a full review, training and invested £6000 in a new Phonic scheme, including Rhino Readers, and home reading to ensure we continue we close the gap. We commit to a budget spend annually to continue to build our libraries in classrooms and in each library.

Each child in EYFS and Yr1 has a daily, minimum 20-minute phonics lesson, following the teaching sequence of revisit/ review – teach – practise – apply.

In Yr2, children access a balance of both phonic and spelling punctuation and grammar (SPAG) lessons based on their individual needs and attainment.

EYFS and KS1 children are either taught as a whole class or sometimes put into small groups, based on regular assessments so that children’s learning needs are accurately matched to the correct provision.

Small phonic sessions or interventions are delivered by teaching assistants and overseen by the class teacher, to provide complimentary teaching.

Sessions are lively, fast-paced, and fun. In a session, children are taught either phonemes/ digraphs/ trigraphs, high frequency and/or tricky words and these are consolidated through reading and writing.

There is an emphasis on paired work and lots of opportunities to speak and listen, as well as to read and write the sounds.

At the end of Year One children have to take the national Phonics Test which tests children’s phonic knowledge. Here, they are required to read real and nonsense words, applying the skills they have learnt. Ideally, children will have completed and consolidated Phase 5 during Year 1 and Phase 6 during Year 2, so that they can focus more on higher-level comprehension using increasingly challenging texts.

Any child that does not complete the phonics programme will continue learning phonics throughout Year 3 and 4 during interventions.

 At home

 To support your child’s development of reading skills and enjoyment of reading, we have developed these opportunities to engage with reading as a family:

*Your child will bring home a Banded Book (levelled) matched to their reading age and a book for pleasure from one of our libraries.

*A high-quality Reading Record – please record each time your child reads in all year groups. This could be their banded book, book from the library, comic, recipe kindle etc

*Research shows that the quality of reading, reading together, sharing, and discussing stories all have the most impact on successfully developing reading. Each week, your child’s teacher will encourage you to complete the reading journal with your child. You can also use it to record discussions you have about books, authors, characters and settings.

*Please ensure your child’s Book Band Book, Reading Challenge Book and Reading Records are brought into school every day because they may be used in lessons throughout the week.