Reading
The intention for Readers at our school
At Hinchliffe Mill Junior and Infant School, we strive to make every child an avid reader and our curriculum is designed to expose children to a range of high-quality texts. We teach children to treat the books we have in school with respect and care and they are prominently displayed in classrooms for children to access.
Why is Reading important to learn?
Reading has many benefits, but it’s a skill that even a lot of adults don’t use enough. Apart from the necessity of reading to get by in today’s world, let’s look at some other benefits of reading and how these can contribute positively to your child’s development.
- Reading helps you discover the world
Reading is a gateway to learning anything about everything. It helps you discover new things and educate yourself in any area of life you are interested in. You can find a book on just about any subject you can imagine, dive in and start learning. Your child can learn about their interests (and even themselves) through reading things they enjoy.
- Reading develops your imagination and creativity
When we watch television or a movie, all the information is given to us on the screen – there’s nothing we need to imagine. A book in its pure form is just words on a page, and our minds have to do the work, imagining the words coming to life. This does wonders to develop our creativity and imagination.
- Reading improves vocabulary and communication
Giving your child access to a world of words is one of the best ways to improve their vocabulary and enhance their spelling skills. New knowledge that’s gained through enjoyment has a tendency to stick and doesn’t even feel like work! Both their written and spoken communication abilities can be improved through regular reading.
- Reading helps with building a good self-image and playing well with others
Learning new concepts, discovering exciting places and understanding others’ perspectives is key to building a well-rounded self-image – not to mention the self-esteem boost from being able to read well! It’s at early ages that children can be most easily influenced, and a positive reading experience can do wonders to help them form a positive perception of themselves. Reading also has social benefits. Children can discuss stories with others and form friendships over shared interests.
- Reading improves concentration and reduces stress
Not only does reading focus your attention entirely on the task at hand, it also immerses you in the information, improving concentration and memory of what you read. Getting completely involved in a book can help us relax and feel calm.
Implementation
How is Reading Taught across school?
Early Reading
Children regularly read with adults in school and stories and books are shared with children on a daily basis to cultivate a love of reading and sharing books. Children in Year Reception and Year 1 take part in Guided Reading linked to Monster Phonics.
The Monster Phonics SSP - Systematic Synthetic Phonics Programme - is taught to pupils daily in Years Reception, 1 and 2. Pupils take home a reading book from the Monster Phonics Reading Scheme and also use these texts when completing weekly Guided Reading activities.
Year 1 begin to complete weekly written comprehensions in school and this links to homework also.
Resilient Reader
We explicitly teach vocabulary acquisition and reading comprehension from Years 2 to Year 6 through Resilient Reader. Resilient Reader is a superhero who uses their two hands to teach the skills children need to successfully comprehend the texts they are reading.
The left hand teaches the ‘gist’ of a text – who, what, where, when and why. Children will be taught to retrieve answers by skimming the text.
The right hand teaches children to find, explain, infer, predict and compare. Children are taught to interrogate the text to construct their answers.
Resilient Reader incorporates all aspects of whole class reading and lessons are structured as follows:
- Children explore the vocabulary and structure of high-quality and challenging texts – where appropriate, linked to other curriculum areas such as Science or humanities - which are dissected by the class through high-level questioning and discussion.
- Children complete a range of activities, of which not all have to have a written outcome, that enable children to develop their vocabulary and comprehension skills
- All children are regularly immersed in high-quality children's literature, exposing every child to challenging texts and higher-level vocabulary.
- Children are able to improve speaking and listening skills as well as developing comprehension skills.
Each week, we celebrate a ‘Resilient Reader’ of the week in our celebrations assembly.
How is Reading Assessed?
Formative Assessments
Reading is assessed formatively through staff listening to pupils read as regularly as possibly. Monster Phonics plan for Summative assessments to be completed throughout the year , assessing the sounds taught, fluency of HFW and tricky words.
Summative Assessments - PIRA - Progress In Reading Assessment
PIRA Assessments are completed termly by all year groups from Year 1 -6. Reception pupils complete their first PIRA assessment in the Summer term as a transition to starting KS1. The data from these assessments are logged to track pupil progress in Reading as a standardised score is gained and a predictive progress measure for the next assessment based on their attainment result.
What adjustments are made to ensure that learning is accessible to all pupils?
Additional interventions are organised and delivered to pupils who need additional support with Phonics/Reading.
How do we promote Reading across School?
Class Readers
Adults in school read to the children for pleasure at least once daily! The children have the opportunity to enjoy well-chosen, high-quality texts they may not choose to read independently, or would otherwise struggle to read.
Independent Reading
Children are given time to look at or read a chosen book, or their reading book, regularly throughout the week. This is an ideal time for reading aloud to an adult, or for independent reading time.
Author Visits
We are very lucky to participate in regular remote author visits via our local bookshop, Read in Holmfirth. These are highly engaging and interactive events, which expose children to current children’s literature and a range of authors, including non-fiction authors. Children are given the opportunity to order books through school at a discounted price.
World Book Day
We leap at the chance to celebrate our love of reading! Each World Book Day, we undertake exciting activities relating to children’s literature and more often than not, take the opportunity to dress up!
Playtime Library
Children are able to visit our playtime library once per week, where they will be guided by Year 6 children in choosing a book to borrow and take home to share with an adult or simply enjoy by themselves.
Home Reading
Children take their independent reading book home each day, with a Reading Record booklet to record home reads. They bring their reading book back into school with them each day. Parents are encouraged to read with their children at least three times a week and record this in their reading record.
Teachers identify which children need regular reading with an adult in school (due to falling behind age related expectations or lack of home reads) and plan in regular reads with an adult during Reading for Pleasure or at other times during the school day.
Virtual Library
Children can access our very own ‘virtual library’ via Google Classroom or using the link below, They can select a book, which will then take them to a video of someone (usually the author) reading that book aloud. For longer texts, there are ‘tasters from authors’ where children can access a chunk of the book, or view a trailer for it. The entire library is interactive; there are many websites to access which link to many subjects across the curriculum, for example, PE and Science.
End of Year Early Learning Goals for EYFS
Focus on CLL and Literacy Reading and Comprehension
End of Year Reading Expectations for pupils in Year 1 - Year 6