Reading
Curriculum Overview
Reading at Curry Mallet School
All children at Curry Mallet are inspired to develop a love of reading. We teach from and share quality texts and introduce all children to a range of authors, text types and structured activities to ensure wider reading is promoted and children are taught to read fluently and with understanding.
If or when any child is working below age-related expectations, we ensure targeted support is put in place to ensure the development of their fluency and comprehension to enable them to make progress.
Intent
At Curry Mallet we value reading as a key life skill and are dedicated to enabling our children to become lifelong readers and gain lifelong enjoyment of reading and books. Our aim is for all children to read accurately, fluently and with understanding as quickly as possible. We believe reading is key for academic success and helps children to develop a good linguistic knowledge of vocabulary and grammar. We understand that fluent readers will learn more, as they are able to gain knowledge for themselves and will be able to read and respond to a wide range of different types of texts. We aim for our children to read with expression, clarity and confidence and develop a deeper level of emotional intelligence and empathy. Teachers impart a love of literature through regularly reading stories and poems to the class.
Implementation
Early phonics teaching is key to fluent reading success and this is taught as a phased approach across Key Stage 1. At Curry Mallet we use a synthetic phonics programme called Letters and Sounds to enable children to apply their knowledge of phonics in order to decode unfamiliar words with increasing accuracy and speed. Children work through the different phases, learning and developing their phonics sounds, graphemes and knowledge. Individual reading books are sent home and in Key Stage 1 these are phonically decodable and are closely matched to a child’s developing phonological knowledge. Reading books are sorted into fully decodable “I can read to you” books and books where not all words are decodable “We can share”. Children stay on banded phonically decodable books until they can read fluently and with comprehension. In Key Stage 2 children become “free readers” and can read books of their choosing from a wide range available and appropriate for their age and reading ability. Teachers monitor carefully those children that are not making progress or being supported at home and provide extra individual reading time for them within school. The bottom 20% of children for each year group receive interventions and extra time for reading to other adults. Guided reading in Key Stage 1 focuses primarily on teaching decoding skills and moves onto comprehension skills as children become independent, fluent readers. Children are grouped according to ability and guided reading books are the book band above which the children are currently reading at home. This enables new sounds and skills to be taught. Each pupil has a contact book with space to write in daily reading at home as well as at school. We encourage parents to listen to their child read daily and have a whole school reward system for reading more than four times each week.
Knowledge and skills progression through the school. At Curry Mallet reading skills and knowledge will be developed through each phase of learning by building on previous levels of understanding.
Word Reading
Year 1
- apply phonic knowledge and skills as the route to decode words
- respond speedily with the correct sound to graphemes (letters or groups of letters) for all 40+ phonemes, including, where applicable, alternative sounds for graphemes
- read accurately by blending sounds in unfamiliar words containing GPCs that have been taught
- read common exception words, noting unusual correspondences between spelling and sound and where these occur in the word
- read words containing taught GPCs and –s, –es, –ing, –ed, –er and –est endings
- read other words of more than one syllable that contain taught GPCs
- read aloud accurately books that are consistent with their developing phonic knowledge and that do not require them to use other strategies to work out words
- re-read these books to build up their fluency and confidence in word reading
Year 2
- continue to apply phonic knowledge and skills as the route to decode words until automatic decoding has become embedded and reading is fluent
- read accurately by blending the sounds in words that contain the graphemes taught so far, especially recognising alternative sounds for graphemes
- read accurately words of two or more syllables that contain the same graphemes as above
- read words containing common suffixes
- read further common exception words, noting unusual correspondences between spelling and sound and where these occur in the word
- read most words quickly and accurately, without overt sounding and blending, when they have been frequently encountered
- read aloud books closely matched to their improving phonic knowledge, sounding out unfamiliar words accurately, automatically and without undue hesitation
- re-read these books to build up their fluency and confidence in word reading.
Year 3/4
- apply their growing knowledge of root words, prefixes and suffixes (etymology and morphology) as listed in English Appendix 1, both to read aloud and to understand the meaning of new words they meet
- read further exception words, noting the unusual correspondences between spelling and sound, and where these occur in the word.
Year 5/6
- apply their growing knowledge of root words, prefixes and suffixes (morphology and etymology), as listed in English Appendix 1, both to read aloud and to understand the meaning of new words that they meet.
Comprehension
Year 1
- listening to and discussing a wide range of poems, stories and non-fiction at a level beyond that at which they can read independently
- being encouraged to link what they read or hear read to their own experiences
- becoming very familiar with key stories, fairy stories and traditional tales, retelling them and considering their particular characteristics
- recognising and joining in with predictable phrases
- learning to appreciate rhymes and poems, and to recite some by heart
- discussing word meanings, linking new meanings to those already known
- understand both the books they can already read accurately and fluently and those they listen to by:
- drawing on what they already know or on background information and vocabulary provided by the teacher
- discussing the significance of the title and events
- predicting what might happen on the basis of what has been read so far
Year 2
- listening to, discussing and expressing views about a wide range of contemporary and classic poetry, stories and non-fiction at a level beyond that at which they can read independently
- discussing the sequence of events in books and how items of information are related
- becoming increasingly familiar with and retelling a wider range of stories, fairy stories and traditional tales
- discussing and clarifying the meanings of words, linking new meanings to known vocabulary
- checking that the text makes sense to them as they read and correcting inaccurate reading
- answering and asking questions
- predicting what might happen on the basis of what has been read so far
- participate in discussion about books, poems and other works that are read to them and those that they can read for themselves, taking turns and listening to what others say
- explain and discuss their understanding of books, poems and other material, both those that they listen to and those that they read for themselves.
Year 3 / 4
- listening to and discussing a wide range of fiction, poetry, plays, non-fiction and reference books or textbooks
- drawing inferences such as inferring characters’ feelings, thoughts and motives from their actions, and justifying inferences with evidence
- identifying main ideas drawn from more than one paragraph and summarising these
- using dictionaries to check the meaning of words that they have read
- identifying themes and conventions in a wide range of books
- discussing words and phrases that capture the reader’s interest and imagination
- checking that the text makes sense to them, discussing their understanding and explaining the meaning of words in context
- asking questions to improve their understanding of a text
- predicting what might happen from details stated and implied
- retrieve and record information from non-fiction
Year 5 / 6
- continuing to read and discuss an increasingly wide range of fiction from our literary heritage, poetry, plays, non-fiction and reference books or textbooks
- increasing their familiarity with a wide range of books, including myths, legends and traditional stories, modern fiction, fiction from our literary heritage, and books from other cultures and traditions
- checking that the book makes sense to them, discussing their understanding and exploring the meaning of words in context
- identifying and discussing themes and conventions in and across a wide range of writing
- making comparisons within and across books
- asking questions to improve their understanding
- drawing inferences such as inferring characters’ feelings, thoughts and motives from their actions, and justifying inferences with evidence
- predicting what might happen from details stated and implied
- summarising the main ideas drawn from more than one paragraph, identifying key details that support the main ideas
Impact
Children become fluent, confident readers who enjoy reading a range of texts and sharing stories. Children are able to use their reading skills across a range of other curriculum subjects enabling them to gain knowledge for themselves. Attainment in reading is measured using both statutory and non-statutory assessments. Attainment in phonics is measured by the Phonics Screening Test at the end of Year 1. At the end of the year on the annual report to parents, a judgement will be made regarding a child’s attainment in reading relating to the national curriculum for their year group.
Children in Reception are assessed against the ELG for Word Reading. Children in Years 1-6 are judged as WT (working towards) ARE (Age Related Expectations) GD (Greater Depth).
Reading activities for all children
- Children are all taught Systematic Synthetic Phonics from the beginning of their reception year.
- Children in each class have a non-fiction or fiction book carefully selected to match their reading ability or, as and when appropriate, of their own choosing to read at home and at school.
- Resources for Learning books are ordered termly, providing access to a range of authors and texts for children to read and study linking learning across the curriculum.
- The learning environment in every class promotes the acquisition of vocabulary.
- The school library is open at lunch times for children to choose and share books of their choice.
- Guided reading activities take place in each class and provide the opportunity to discuss texts with adults and their peers.
- CGP books are used in class to discuss different comprehension questions and explore texts in detail.
- The teacher has a class reader which is read from regularly to expose children to vocabulary beyond their reading age as well as link to the term’s project.
- Each class has a comfortable and inspiring reading area.
- World Book Day is celebrated each year, with themed activities to engage and inspire children to read.
Reading activities for children not at Age Related Expectations (ARE)
- Targeted interventions, such as Individualised Literacy Intervention are used to develop accurate, fluent reading with good comprehension.
- Volunteers from the local community, visit school each week and listen to selected children read, encouraging discussion about the texts and fluency when reading aloud.
- The Teaching Assistant or class teacher will also hear the children read regularly.
- Targeted reading support groups will take place on a regular basis.
- Small group interventions take place with a teacher or teaching assistant.
- Bill the Reading Dog visits every week and encourages children to read aloud!
Phonics
At Curry Mallet Church of England Primary School we follow Unlocking Letters and Sounds .
Phonics is taught daily in Foundation Stage (Reception) and Key Stage 1 (Years 1 and 2). We teach Phase 2, 3 and 4 in Foundation Stage, Phase 4 (revision) and 5 in Year 1 and Phase 5 mastery in Year 2 before moving onto our spelling program.
