How is reading taught in our school?

The school teaches reading through a variety of methods. The graded reading scheme is put together with a range of books from the Oxford Reading Tree and Project X. The early stages of our scheme contain phonetically decodable books. These books will be used to teach reading in the early years classes and allow the children to read words and sentences through segmenting (breaking words down into phonemes which are the smallest unit of sound) and then blending them together again. These fully decodable books are both fiction and non-fiction and are for reading at home and school alongside other ‘reading for pleasure books’. There are different types of reading taking place during the week.

To aid the children's transition from phonically decodable books to independent free choice reading we have established stages called incredible independence and further independent reading. Incredible Independent Reading (orange reading diary)  choose from a given selection of books (with in the reading scheme)  that include two from each genre eg. classics, chucklers, myths and legends and non-fiction. They can read them in any order they please. As an Further Independent Reader (green reading diary) they can chose their own books from a range of categories from home or school. Challenges are set to develop diversity in their reading content. They then express their opinion of what they have read to help inform future reading material. 

To support the teaching of reading in the class there will be shared, guided and on e to one reading.  In shared reading the teachers use a single text with the whole class. This text then forms the basis for the learning. Guided reading is a small group activity, comprising approximately 6 children. The reading material, questions and activities are adapted to target the specific skills and the learning focus. 

Individual reading takes place in a one to one situation with the child sharing his/her book with an adult or older child in a quiet environment, allowing discussion to accompany the reading.

The teaching of reading is also accompanied by the daily teaching of synthetic phonics in the early years and key stage 1. Phonemes (the sound letters make)are taught in a systematic way. Graphemes (the way a phoneme looks) are taught, practised and applied through the use of ICT, practical activities and recorded methods. The school follows the Bug Club schemes of work. (from Sept 2022)

The approaches to the teaching of reading and synthetic phonics have had a positive impact on the achievement of our children. 84% of year 4 children achieved age related expectations or above at the end of 2022/23. 90% of the year 1 children passed their phonics screen checks in Summer 23. This is well above national averages.