Reading

Intent

At Ashton under Hill First School we believe a love of reading is fundamental to all learning. This enjoyment of reading is nurtured through opportunities to listen to and read a range of high quality engaging books. These texts underpin our English curriculum and through considered planning, we build regular opportunities for children to be exposed to a range of rich, high quality texts through many different aspects of the curriculum. It is important that the texts the children are exposed to are shared at home and connections are made when moving through the school. We believe quality interactions rich in talk and language provide the building blocks for reading and an emphasis on this development is created when the children start Nursery.

Implementation

Enhanced by the teaching of systematic phonics, our aim is for children to begin to develop fluency by the end of EYFS and become fluent readers by the end of Key Stage 1. We consistently use Bug Club Phonics as a teaching tool throughout EYFS and Key Stage 1. All staff have up to date phonics training and use the correct terminology when teaching a whole class, small groups or 1:1.

The teaching of daily phonics in EYFS and Key Stage 1 is given a high priority. Teaching is tailored to the children’s need through high quality teaching and timely, rigorous assessment in order to match learning to enable continuous progress. Any children who are not secure with this knowledge are exposed to ‘pre teach’ or ‘intervention’ sessions. If children are not reaching these expectations and keeping up with the pace of our phonics programme we intervene quickly by giving extra support. Reading books are selected to match the children’s phonetic knowledge and all children choose a book for pleasure to share and read at home.

Throughout the school we use Reading Vipers to teach reading skills. This is implemented through whole class reading sessions or small group teaching where questions and activities are carefully selected to teach these skills. We believe that high quality questioning and the teaching of vocabulary is essential for improving inference and comprehension skills. The impact of this provision is monitored through the analysis of Pira and teacher assessment as well as the Phonics Screening Check at the end of Year 1. Individual pupil progress is monitored and analysed throughout the year through on-going assessments.

To promote the love of learning, children are immersed in a text in all English lessons and are read to daily. The books are carefully selected and shared with parents. All children have access to previously read texts found in reading areas in all classrooms. The children also have an opportunity to visit the school library to read similar books or books by the same author. Books that we read in class are also shared on our termly newsletter.

Phonics Curriculum Parents Presentation Autumn 2022

Impact

At Ashton under Hill First School, by the end of EYFS, we want our children to develop a love of books and stories, to ask questions and and to be confident with decoding, segmenting and blending. By the end of KS1 we want our children to be fluent readers – confident with strategies to use when reading unfamiliar words and to be able to demonstrate an understanding of the text through comprehension VIPERs questions. By the time children leave Ashton under Hill First School, we want children to develop a life-long love for reading and see the benefits that this can bring.