Reading at Platt
At Platt Primary School reading is at the heart of all learning. As stated in our vision we believe that children are like seeds and having the ability to read, will help to ensure they grow and flourish in their education. We want to nurture confident, fluent readers who develop a lifelong love of reading and learning.
Books are like doors, open them and they can transport you to new worlds of knowledge and adventure.
Intent
At Platt we believe that the teaching of reading is integral to a child’s understanding and appreciation of the world around them; a platform that allows our children to see beyond what they know, share in cultural experiences and develop the vocabulary they need to effectively express themselves. Our reading curriculum strives to foster a lifelong love of reading. We offer our children opportunities to develop into fluent, enthusiastic and critical readers ensuring children can then access the full curriculum.
Implementation (Early Reading and Phonics)
We start teaching phonics in Reception and follow the Read Write Inc. programme into Years 1 and 2 and then KS2 if required. This synthetics phonic programme ensures that our children build on their growing knowledge of the alphabetic code, mastering phonics to read and spell as they move through the school. Discreet phonics sessions take place daily. We use effective grouping that ensures every child learns at their specific challenge level. Assessment and tracking of the children helps teachers identify the actions that will make the biggest difference to individual children’s progress, so they can respond immediately. Every Monday, children take home a Read Write Inc. Book Bag book and each Thursday children will bring home, the Read Write Inc. book that they have been focusing on in class. The books should be used at home, (to read independently or share with an adult), to consolidate learning, which we hope, in turn, will boost the children’s confidence in their reading skills. Reception and Year 1 will also take a book home from our reading areas, to share with a grown-up for their enjoyment. Year 2 will also take home a banded reading book on a Friday.
We welcome volunteers to help support children’s reading at Platt. Volunteers will read with children on a 1:1 basis, to help support children’s learning and enjoyment of books. Parents help their children practise phonics with the storybooks that are sent home. In addition to the structured phonics sessions, the children have daily reading activities as a whole class. This helps to extend children’s vocabulary and comprehension, as well as supporting their writing. All classrooms have attractive, inviting book corners where the children can access a wide range of books, both fiction and non-fiction to help embed their love of books, stories and reading.
Implementation KS2
Reading is taught 4 times per week in each of the year groups. Whole class shared reading is used to enable all children to share high quality texts and develop skills in reading comprehension and fluency. As children enter KS2, the majority of children are able to decode due to our structured phonics programme. Children who are unable to decode are transitioned into KS2 with a reading intervention called Fresh Start from the Read Write Inc. programme, to meet their individual reading needs. All KS2 children have an individual reading book targeted at their reading level. Children are assessed each term using the Benchmark Kits resource to accurately track and assess their reading progress across the whole school, ensuring consistent and accurate levelling in reading. Three times a year Rising Stars assessments are used as a diagnostic tool to assess pupils on their reading accuracy and comprehension. On entering KS2 children choose a reading book from the colour coded book bands in school. Once they are achieving a standardised score of over 100, they then choose a book from the class or school library. The choices the children make will be guided by the class teacher to ensure they read a range of genre at the appropriate challenge level. All KS2 children take home a reading book. This is so that they can practise the reading skills they have been taught in school. We encourage the children to read at home at least three times weekly. All KS2 children have a reading journal so that they can record the books they have read.
Impact
- Children will be able to read and will show increasing confidence, resilience and independence in both their reading and their reading skills so that they continue to become lifelong readers.
- Children will have a love of reading and develop preferences on what type of genre or topic they like to read.
- Children will have a book appropriate to their developing phonic knowledge and matched to their fluency and understanding.
- Children will be exposed to a range of different genres and authors.
- Children will be able to understand what is read to them and answer questions including making inferences and making connections between texts.
- Children will be placed on the correct book band and make progress through the books bands in relation to their phonic knowledge and age related expectation.
- Every child will make progress from their starting point.