Reading

Reading Intent Statement

At Fulwood and Cadley, we believe that all pupils should have the opportunity to be fluent, confident readers who are able to successfully comprehend and understand a wide range of texts. We strive for our pupils to develop a passion for reading and a love of books not only to support their academic ability but to develop their life-long opportunities in every day life, further education and future employment. We believe reading is one of the most important ingredients of a successful learner and as a result, we aim to permeate our whole school curriculum with opportunities to read

Reading Implementation

Phonics and Early Reading

Twinkl Phonics  is a fully comprehensive, synthetic phonics teaching programme designed to be used with pupils from EYFS to year 2.  Delivered through the stories and adventures of Kit, Sam and the Twinkl Phonics family, the scheme builds and develops the skills and understanding children need to become effective, independent readers and writers. 

What is Synthetic Phonics? 

Synthetic phonics is a method of teaching reading and writing in which words are broken up into their smallest units of sound or ‘phonemes’. Children learn to associate a written letter or group of letters, known as ‘graphemes’, with each phoneme. Sounds are then built up or ‘blended’ together into words for reading or, conversely, whole words are broken down or ‘segmented’ into their constituent sounds for writing.

From year 2 upwards, our reading lessons will be based on whole-class modelling and shared reading as well as effective guided and one-to-one teaching of reading to deepen children's understanding and engagement. 

"A child who is read to will have an inner kingdom of unicorns, talking spiders and a knife that cuts into other worlds" - Pie Corbett

At Fulwood and Cadley, we use a variety of resources to support whole class teaching of reading. Each half-term, we select a novel from our curriculum maps, which are derived from Pie Corbett's reading spine, poetry spine and page turners, alongside a variety of age-appropriate high-quality texts. We also use extracts from texts from a vast amount of themes and genres linking many areas of the curriculum.

Reading lessons focus on teaching a variety of specific skills such as developing vocabulary, inference, prediction, explanation, retrieval and summarising. Resources such as Literacy Shed's VIPERS and Ashley Booth's themed lessons offer a vast array of texts as well as a variety of read and respond activities developed by the Lancashire Literacy Team.  

Pie Corbett's Reading Spine

There are a core set of books that underpin our reading curriculum and are used as inspiration for our whole class reading lessons as well as our class readers. Pie Corbett's reading and poetry spine build a common bank of stories and poems that bind our school community together. The books are intended to build a living library inside a child's mind. It is a store of classics and essential reads that help children engage at a deeper level and enter their imaginations. 

Reading Skills

In whole class guided reading sessions, children develop their key reading skills of decoding, Vocabulary, Inference, Prediction, Explanation, Retrieval and Summarising (VIPERS) Children also continue to develop their reading fluency skills, building upon their phonics knowledge. 
 

The importance of teaching vocabulary is heightened throughout the curriculum and is taught frequently in all subjects but specifically in reading.  Vocabulary is taught discretely before a text is explored to check pupils understanding of key words enabling them to access the text developing their rich and extensive bank of words. 

Adults modelling reading to pupils is also a priority at Fulwood and Cadley therefore all children have a class novel or alternative book read to them every day. Class readers are designed to be read for pleasure and although some ideas are transferred into reading lessons, their main purpose is to excite and engage the children and expose them to a new and varied vocabulary. 

Reading For Pleasure

At Fulwood and Cadley, we are passionate about developing within our pupils' a love for reading and dedicate time within our curriculum to explore children's interests and passions in books so that it opens up new worlds for children. Reading gives our pupils the opportunity to use their imagination, explore new ideas, visit new places and meet new characters. Reading for pleasure also improves children’s well-being and empathy. It helps them to understand their own identity, and gives them an insight into the world and the views of others. Research shows that reading for pleasure can be directly linked to children’s success throughout their time at school and even throughout their lifetime.

The 'TOP 50' reading competition challenges pupils from EYFS up to Year 6 to read the TOP 50 recommended books for their year group. This means throughout a pupil's journey at our school, they will be challenged to read a total of 350 books for pleasure alongside many other books and texts they explore as part of their curriculum lessons. 

In early school (EYFS & Year 1) each class explores the books with their teacher as part of daily reading time. In middle school (Years 2 and 3) and upper school (years 4, 5 and 6),  pupils will be loaned a book as part of their classroom library and will be challenged to read as many books as they can in a specific time period (normally 25 books for half an academic year) Each time a book has been read, pupils complete a book review either written or uploaded to See-Saw and Showbie.  Once their teacher has reflected on their book review, they are able to get their competition card stamped and will earn a raffle ticket. This will be placed into a school draw to receive a magnificent reading hamper!

Home - School Reading

We value the support given to us by parents and carers to further embed the skills of reading and as a school, we believe it is one of the most important things you can do as a parent or carer to support your child's learning journey and progress. Reading at home is encouraged and promoted through class incentives and parental engagement workshops. From when your child begins in Reception (EYFS), they will be given two reading books which they will take home  to read with their parents. Children working on specific levels with Twinkl Phonics  will be sent home a specific electronic book that matches their focus sound and guided reading book in class that week; this links directly to their current phonics level. Pupils will also be sent home an additional book to support their decoding skills from a specific level from the Oxford Owl Reading Tree or a book known as a 'Talk about Book' which will be at a more challenging level to share their reading time with an adult.  When parents have listened to their child read, they are asked to sign the accompanying reading diary to develop a collaborative approach between teacher and parent to support the child's progress in their reading. 

Home-school reading continues to be significantly important, even when a child is in upper school. Although they may read fluently, continuing to listen to your child read or reading to them allows them to develop their understanding and wide range of vocabulary that will support them in all areas of their learning. 

'Teaching your children to love reading is one of the most important gifts you will ever give them!'

Contact Details

If you wish to know more about phonics and the development of early reading, please contact the Early Years Senior Leader, Mrs Gill at:  senco@fulwoodcadley.lancs.sch.uk

If you wish to know more about the whole-class approach to the teaching of reading and the specific skills that are explored in reading lessons, please contact the English Leader, Mrs Livesey at: llivesey@fulwoodcadley.lancs.sch.uk