Reading
It is our intent that children at Longthorpe Primary School receive a high quality reading curriculum that develops confident, enthusiastic and fluent readers, who are able to effectively articulate their ideas and emotions in relation to texts and then into the wider world. They will develop skills in order to understand, question and challenge a variety of knowledge and written forms of communication.
We believe that the ability to read fluently and effectively and understand texts has a direct impact upon progress and attainment in all areas of the curriculum and also upon a child’s self-esteem, well-being and motivation to learn. We recognise that children need to develop a secure knowledge of the skills in literacy, so they will follow a clear path of progression as they develop through the years. Through a range of texts and genres, including poetry, fiction (modern and classic) and non-fiction, children will be able to critique the author’s use of language and how that impacts on the reader in order to develop their own skills in writing. Furthermore, we wish to develop the love of reading for enjoyment. This is crucial for our children as we support them to become lifelong readers, enabling them to participate as full members of society.
In order to achieve our intent, our aims are fully embedded through the Success For All Programme (SFA). SFA is an evidenced based programme that focuses on increasing the reading skills of every child. See the SFA section.
Home reading for Roots children
Children in Roots take their shared story books home as well as a reading book from the school library (these must be in school every day). Children and parents are expected to read at home at least 3 times a week. In reception, we actively encourage the parents to read a bedtime story to their child every night. It helps the children to develop their imagination, knowledge of languages and the meaning of words. Pupils have comprehensive reading diaries in which they can record their reading, which is then checked by the teacher or TA at least once a week. Trading cards (Sainsbury's Heroes and Lego cards) are used as an incentive to read at home. Classes display the home reading (like a chart or ladder) to show who is achieving the target. Certificates are awarded for every 25 reads.
MyOn (Renaissance Learning) e-library is available to all children and families, which gives them access to an extensive library of e-books appropriate to their level and interests.
Reading at home for Wings children
The books within Wings are not taken home, but stage books are provided that are appropriate to their level, alongside a library book of their choice. These are mainly from the Oxford Reading Tree scheme. These books will have been chosen by the class teacher and will match children’s reading development. We ask parents to share these books with their children and record this reading in their child’s reading diary. Other supplementary schemes are available to cater for children’s individual needs. There are also challenge boxes available for each Year group phase: these provide books by popular authors with appropriate context for the age group. Dipping in and out of the stage books at these challenge box stages, allows them to broaden their reading repertoire at an age appropriate level.
The expectation is the same as the Roots children (see above). The diaries have different tasks within them as they move from the KS1 book into LKS2 and then into UKS2.
All children have a log in for Oxford Owl e-books and the MyOn (Renaissance Learning) e-library, where children and parents are able to access an extensive library of e-books appropriate to their level and interests.
Other Opportunities
Reading happens in all other subjects across the curriculum and the skills learnt in SFA are linked during these opportunities. Skills such as skimming and scanning are consolidated when reading around a subject eg. researching a history topic or using a contents page to find which page to go to first.
Learning vocabulary
Children in Year 5 & 6 have the opportunity to utilise their individual iPads to access Bedrock (A vocabulary learning app). Bedrock Vocabulary is an online programme that helps students to learn new vocabulary. It helps them to learn the tricky sort of language they might come across in textbooks, lessons or exams. Children are expected to earn 20+ points each week by completing a lesson, completing pre and post quizzes, learning new words.
Fluency in reading
During SfA lessons, children work on their fluency of reading. This is a key element in their reading development and is vital in helping them access texts as they move through the year groups and into KS3. Each year group has a recommended words per minute (WPM) to aim for in order to be where they need to be by the end of Year 6. This will help them access the end of Key Stage tests in the time given to them. We encourage the children to read with speed, but also with understanding. See the fundamentals for each year groups WPM target.
Teachers reading aloud
At some point during every day, teachers will read to their children. These books will be a combination of poetry, chapter books and picture books. In line with the National Curriculum, these texts will often be beyond the children's own reading ability but will allow the children access to a rich vocabulary and to experience the joy of using their imagination.
In every year group, there are key authors and texts that teachers will share with the children during these reading sessions, often linked to topic based work.
The Oxford Reading Tree
This is a successful reading scheme that is used in approximately 80% of primary schools nationwide. Reading scheme books are arranged by book bands and stages and are categorised in bands of similar levels of reading difficulty. Children do not need to read every book on that level before moving on as long as the teacher is satisfied they have read a range of material at each level – e.g. fiction, non-fiction, poetry. To find out more about this scheme and how it’s used at Longthorpe please see related documents below.