Intent

At Newton Leys Primary School, we aim for all children to develop a lifelong love of reading as well as the ability to read confidently and fluently. Reading is fundamental to education and helps children to develop culturally, emotionally, intellectually, socially and spiritually through learning to express themselves, connect ideas and make sense of the world they live in. We encourage a love for reading through daily guided reading and reading for pleasure as well as time spent listening to a wide variety of high-quality fiction and non-fiction texts. In addition, high quality texts are used across the curriculum as a stimulus in many topic-based lessons. We are a team of teachers who know and understand the processes that underpin learning to read, and draw on expert training, practice and coaching to achieve this. All of the decisions we make as a school about reading practise are based on current research – we are well informed and have up to date knowledge and pedagogy. Through our reading curriculum we equip pupils with the skills to develop vocabulary and language, acquire knowledge and to build on what they already know. We aim to provide children with a literacy-rich environment, high quality texts and inspiring learning opportunities, which will help them to:

 • Gain a life-long enjoyment of reading and books.

 • Read accurately, fluently and with understanding;

• Apply a knowledge of structured synthetic phonics in order to decode unfamiliar words with increasing accuracy and speed;

• Be able to read with expression, clarity and confidence;

• Develop a good linguistic knowledge of vocabulary and grammar;

• Read and respond to a wide range of different types of texts;

• Develop a deeper level of emotional intelligence and empathy;

• Read fluently, and with confidence, in any subject in their forthcoming secondary education

Implementation

Once children have completed the RWI scheme, they take part in whole class reading lessons. These focus on core reading skills to develop confident and fluent readers and comprehension skills to enable children to understand the content of their reading, respond to questions and analyse the text. The lessons involve breaking down vocabulary, retrieval questions, individual thinking, partner and class talk and solo tasks covering a range of reading skills (VIPERS). Challenge and deeper thinking questions are planned in to every lesson.

The children have the opportunity to select from a variety of books available in the classroom and the school library. ERIC (Everyone Reading In Class) is time during the school day where all the children read a book of their own choosing. Teachers also model reading for pleasure by using engaging high-quality books and reading aloud daily to their classes, providing a model of what good reading sounds like. Book related talk is encouraged daily and introduces children to new vocabulary. The children in Reception and Year 1 also take part in 'Talk Through Stories' sessions, which develops comprehension and vocabulary.

Reading at home is a valuable part of the reading experience and we encourage children to read at home regularly. We encourage parental support and involvement so that children recognise the importance placed on reading both at school and at home.

Every year group has daily story time, where the children listen to one of the books from their year group reading spine. We also have a poetry spine, where children will listen to, respond and join in with poetry each week.

Each term, class teachers choose a 'Reader of the Term,' and that child gets to choose a new book from our vending machine. In Reception and KS1, teachers also choose a 'Reader of the Week' to celebrate. Children can be chosen for many reasons, for example making excellent progress, participating positively in their reading lessons and demonstrating enthusiasm.

The Phonics and Reading Leads deliver Parent Information sessions throughout the year to support parents. Parents are then invited in the classrooms to see phonics and reading in action.

Impact

By the time children leave Newton Leys Primary School, they are competent readers who can recommend books to their peers, have a thirst for reading a range of genres including poetry, and participate in discussions about books, including evaluating an author’s use of language and the impact this can have on the reader. They can also read books to enhance their knowledge and understanding of all subjects on the curriculum, and communicate their research to a wider audience. Our teaching staff have an expert knowledge of how a child learns to read in order to teach effectively, spark a passion for reading and know how to identify barriers to learning, knowing how to help a child overcome these. We measure the impact of our Reading Curriculum using the Early Years Framework, RWI assessment tools and National Curriculum objectives. Children are assessed through formal and informal teacher assessment against year group objectives and progress made is recorded and tracked half termly. Statutory assessments and moderation are also used as additional assessment tools. In school monitoring through book looks, learning walks and observations take place regularly and feedback is given to staff. High quality reading materials are used and reading that exceeds expectations is modelled throughout the school.

Inclusion: Children who are making less than expected progress with reading are quickly identified so that appropriate support can be put into place. Children may be taught additional phonics with trained teaching assistants (TAs) who deliver the ‘Read, Write, Inc.’ synthetic phonics programme. The aim of these groups is for children to make rapid progress in order to catch up with their peers. Children who speak English as an additional language and are at the early stages of learning English may also receive small group or 1:1 support outside of the English lesson.