Reading
"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go." - Dr. Seuss
We love reading at Meole Brace Primary School and Nursery and we want all our children to share in the pleasure that can be gained by the love of books. Reading is a fundamental life skill enabling pupils to access the whole curriculum. Reading is the key to academic success and so to ensure this, we have a holistic approach to the teaching of reading. Children in our school smoothly move along their reading journey of "Learning To Read" to "Reading To Learn." Learning to read through regular Guided Reading sessions with the teacher, through reading to an additional adult or reading with their peers.
Reading is at the heart of all learning and developing reading skills and fluency is vital for children to make progress in all subjects. Through books, children engage with the topics they are discovering and can explore the diverse world in which they live. As a way of showing our love for reading, teachers regularly read to their class. We believe there is value and pleasure to be had in sharing a book together and finding out where that story takes us. We want our children to be skilled, enthusiastic readers who have a lifelong love for reading.
The early stages of reading allow children to have secure and embedded phonic knowledge to support them with sounding out unfamiliar words. As these skills develop, they will become fluent readers able to use their skills across the curriculum. Children are encouraged to explore texts at depth, answering questions, giving opinions and showing a growing understanding of a wider vocabulary.
Reading happens throughout the school day in most lessons; however, a dedicated daily reading session is delivered every morning. You can learn more about all the reading that goes on in school in our half-termly Reading Newsletters, where you will also find hints and tips for how to support reading at home, as well as information about the many benefits of reading for your child.
Reception and Year 1
Children in Reception and Year 1 read fully decodable books from the Bug Club Phonics Programme.These books match directly with the phonemes being taught in the children's daily phonic lessons and allows for children to practise and embed the application of phonics.
Our books match those linked to our carefully selected Systematic Synthetic Phonic Programme and have a wide range of titles to engage the reader.
Year 2 and Year 3
Children take part in a timetabled reading carousel throughout the week. Some children may need to further embed their phonic knowledge to blend words when reading and will therefore, continue to be supported with decodable texts. In addition to individual reading books, children have weekly Guided reading sessions and independently read a range of carefully chosen books from different genres. Every child has their own Bug Club Online account, where they can access books matched carefully to their reading level at school and at home.
Year 4, 5 and 6
From Year 4, daily reading sessions are centred around a class book, usually linked to the learning theme and the anchor text in Literacy. Throughout the week ,children participate in comprehension activities linked to specific chapters, with a focus on Vocabulary, Inference, Prediction, Explaining, Retrieval and Summary.
Research shows that children need to practice blending and developing their phonic skills to become fluent confident readers, so we encourage a culture of reading and have developed reading spaces throughout school. Calm, inviting reading areas within every classroom offer spaces where children can enjoy books and read for pleasure. A carefully selected range of texts are on offer and these have been chosen to reflect the curriculum being taught or books the children are already familiar with to build their confidence and rehearse reading skills.
Library
Our amazing library is regularly enjoyed by all children in school with classes visiting the library on a weekly basis so that they can choose a new library book to take home, in addition to their reading books from their classes. This means that the children might choose a text currently beyond their independent reading level so these books are intended to be shared with an adult at home. The wealth of quality texts cover a wide range of genres and topics, giving children the opportunity to find out more about a particular subject or enjoy the very latest fiction books.
Reading Partnership
We recognise the valuable impact that reading at home can have. We encourage children to read every night as part of their homework and ask that reading diaries are signed. Learning objectives from the Guided Reading sessions are displayed in reading diaries in order that parents/carers can see the reading skills children are developing each week and make comments that reflect them.
Attainment in reading is measured through the statutory assessments at the end of KS1 and KS2. These results are measured against the reading attainment of children nationally. At the end of each term, children's reading is also assessed in school through reading comprehension assessments. However, we firmly believe that reading is the key to all learning and so the impact of our reading curriculum goes beyond the results of any statutory assessments. We promote reading for pleasure as part of our reading curriculum. Children are encouraged to develop their own love of genres and authors, resuting in a deep, varied, lifelong love of literature. With our "Learn To Read, Read To Learn" philosophy, children become successful in every subject across the curriculum.
Please find more information about our Literacy curriculum and how children's reading knowledge and skills are built up year on year in our Literacy Subject Handbook.