Reading
Vision
And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. Micah 6:8
Through the teachings of Jesus, all can flourish spiritually, emotionally and academically throughout life, living out love and justice for all. Our Christian values of love, justice, compassion, wisdom, forgiveness and friendship underpin the life of the school community and impact on our daily lives. Guilden Sutton Church of England Primary School strives to provide the best possible education for our children. We aim for excellence within our happy, secure school where each individual’s achievements are valued and celebrated. By using a holistic approach, we will provide a curriculum that offers a diverse and challenging environment to inspire and motivate every child in our care.
Intent
At Guilden Sutton Church of England Primary School, we aim to create life-long learners who have a passion for reading for the rest of their lives. We believe that the passion begins with us and we recognise the importance of this being constantly modelled by the staff within our school community. Reading for pleasure is a key aspect of our curriculum and the basis for teaching children to read. We begin by working with parents and carers to enable children to read; once this is mastered, we then provide children with the skills they need to become a ‘reader’. Fluency, comprehension and enjoyment of reading is our ultimate goal. We surround children with exciting texts including books that celebrate gender, race, culture, LGBTQ+ and difference. These high quality texts promote an array of vocabulary, contexts and plots beyond their own reading.
Implementation
As children progress into Key Stage 2, the teaching of comprehension becomes the primary element of reading and takes precedence over word reading. Teachers use children’s prior knowledge of decoding to direct their teaching and to ensure children become independent, fluent and enthusiastic readers who read widely and fluently.
We recognise that although the comprehension skills across Key Stage 2 are similar, the vast selection of age appropriate, high-quality texts we have available are not only provided to instil a love of reading but to ensure the complexity of what is read provides the correct level of challenge for all our children, whatever their barriers may be.
Our dyslexia teacher provides a bespoke intervention programme to children who have been identified as requiring additional support in reading. Dyslexia friendly books are available to those children and additional resources, such as C-Pens, are used successfully throughout Key Stage 2.
For those children whom English is an additional language, we maintain their self-esteem and confidence by providing appropriate provision throughout the school. We recognise that additional support may be necessary and reading is assessed and planned appropriately to ensure our EAL children are always set appropriate and challenging activities.
Children continue to be encouraged to read at home for a minimum of 20 minutes per night. We recognise that children will begin to want to read more and more independently but stress the importance of parents/carers listening to their child. Reading Records provide examples of effective questioning which encourages children to think deeply about what they have read.
Whole class guided reading sessions are taught as a way of expanding children’s vocabulary and deepening their understanding of the texts they read. Texts are selected to be challenging and accessible for all children. Teachers are flexible with their choice of text depending on the children within the class and they ensure that they make meaningful cross-curricular links where possible.
Impact
As children transition into secondary school, we aspire that they are fluent, confident and able readers, who access a range of texts for pleasure and enjoyment. All children can use their reading skills to unlock learning in all areas of the curriculum and they are equipped to take the next step on their learning journey.
Although we believe that the impact of our reading curriculum goes beyond the results of statutory assessments, at the end of Key Stage 2, children complete a national test (SATs) to assess their understanding of different fiction, non-fiction and poetry texts. Children complete a reading paper containing comprehension questions based on fiction, non-fiction and poetry. Other year groups mirror this process to monitor the progress of all children and intervention is provided accordingly.
