Fowey Primary School Reading Policy
Intent, Implementation and Impact Statement for READING
Intent
As a school, we recognise that reading underpins all learning that takes place across a child's life. We therefore place huge importance on teaching and developing the skill of reading early on; developing it to a high standard; and on supporting those for who reading is a challenge as early as possible.
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 want pupils to develop a love of reading; a good knowledge of a range of authors; be able to see themselves and their families represented in a text and be able to understand more about the world around them by reading.
By the end of their time at our school, all pupils should be able to read fluently, and with confidence, in any subject in their forthcoming secondary education. We do not put ceilings on what pupils can achieve in reading and we do not hold preconceptions about any pupils’ ability to make progress. We understand the importance of parents and carers in supporting their children to develop both word reading and comprehension skills, and so we want to encourage a home-school partnership which enables parents and carers to understand how to enhance the skills being taught in school through good quality texts. We are determined that every pupil will learn to read at Fowey Primary School and it is our intention that every pupil develops a life-long love of reading.
Implementation
At Fowey, we teach our pupils to read using the Read Write Inc (RWI) program. Pupils are taught daily and in small groups by their reading stage, not age. They learn the English alphabetic code: first they learn one way to read the 40+ sounds and blend these sounds into words, then they learn to read the same sounds with alternative graphemes. Pupils develop a love of reading by experiencing success from the very beginning. Lively phonic books are closely matched to their increasing knowledge of phonics and ‘tricky’ words and, as children re-read the stories, their fluency increases. Along with a thought-provoking introduction, prompts for thinking out loud and discussion, children are helped to read with a storyteller’s voice. Once pupils’ decoding skills are secure, they take part in Whole Class Reading (WCR) sessions which focus on comprehension skills. Pupils continue to access the RWI programme if their decoding skills are not secure at the end of Key Stage 1.
By Key Stage 2, we expect all pupils to be ready for daily WCR sessions. These focus on vocabulary development, the development of specific reading skills through Vocabulary-Inference-Prediction-Explain-Retrieve-Summarise (VIPERS) and immersion in a wide range of texts. These lessons use high-quality, vocabulary-rich class novels as a stimulus for deeper thinking and discussion and to promote reading stamina. Pupils are encouraged to make links between the texts and use them to develop their knowledge of the world around them.
Reading for pleasure is promoted through our whole school Reading Spine where texts have been specifically chosen to inspire a love of reading in all pupils. These books are widely promoted throughout classrooms and pupils are actively encouraged to read all their year group texts during the academic year.
In Key Stage 2, pupils have the freedom to choose their books based on their Accelerated Reader ZPD and dedicated time is allocated in the timetable for children to read independently. They develop their comprehension skills by regularly quizzing on the books read and take pride in being accurate. Parents are encouraged to be involved in their child’s reading journey from the beginning through parent phonics meetings whereby the structure and key vocabulary and skills from RWI are explained and taught. All children have a home-school reading diary and are encouraged to read aloud daily at home.
Impact
At Fowey, children are continuously assessed each half term and during daily lessons using the RWI materials to ensure that children make the best progress. Those children who are below expectations for their year group are quickly identified, and carefully targeted 1:1 or group tutoring is put in place to help support them.
All the RWI trained adults at Fowey receive continued support and coaching via the reading leader and the Ruth Miskin portal as well as an external RWI trainer throughout the year. This ensures that we are update with any latest RWI developments and that we are continuously monitoring our RWI provision.
We have meetings throughout the year to help support parents so they can then support their children at home. Children bring home RWI books that are carefully matched to the sounds they have been exposed to and the level they have been assessed at. They can then continue to practice and reinforce the skills they have learnt in class in order to further develop their confidence, fluency and accuracy.
Children at Fowey Primary School are passionate about books. Children enjoy discussing the books they have read in school and at home. When children are exposed to a wide range of books, they are given the opportunity to explore the perspectives of characters from all different walks of life. This helps to develop empathy.
Children broaden their vocabulary through reading. Reading inspires and informs writing as children become better-able to identify ‘great’ examples of writing in the books that they read. As a result of our reading curriculum, pupils leave Fowey able to show empathy and understanding towards others; capable of accessing and understanding the world around them and inspired to invent, create and discover.