Reading
At Rowlands Gill, we believe reading is key to the curriculum, language acquisition and is a hugely important life skill.
Upon entry to school, children are taught to read through a systematic and structured approach based around Read Write Inc. Phonics.
Phonics is taught to Early Years (Nursery & Reception) and Key Stage One children on a daily basis. Children are grouped according to their phonic knowledge and appropriate sounds are taught in a small group situation. These groups are assessed, and amended accordingly on a six-week cycle.
From this initial starting point, the children then go on to read a range of texts, both fiction and non-fiction, to give breadth and balance in developing their independent reading skills.
In addition, and to enable children to become confident readers with a love of reading, we have a variety of initiatives in place across the school:
- Until Year 2, pupils engage in daily story time. During story time, the class read a book together in a fun and engaging way. Adults will model good reading fluency and pupils will be given the opportunity to join in with reading, share their veiws or answer questions about the text at appropriate points in the session.
- In EYFS and KS1, children read an appropriately matched phonics or stage book with an adult on a 1:1 basis once per week.
- In Year 2, the class will transition from story time to guided reading. Children do daily guided reading sessions which are focussed around an age-appropriate whole-class text. This allows pupils to read, analyse, discuss and answer comprehension questions about a variety of texts, including novels, poetry and non-fiction texts, and developing their reading fluency and comprehension skills such as inference and deduction. These are teacher led lessons. The week will consist of a vocabulary lesson, a reading lesson and comprehension lessons which will focus on different strands of comprehension from the National Curriculum. This wil continue through KS2.
- Reading Plus – an online, individually tailored reading programme used by Year 6 pupils to improve reading speed, fluency and comprehension as well as giving children an opportunity to expand their reading preferences through a wide range of texts and genres and to help foster a love of reading. All Year 6 pupils will have the opportunity to learn with Reading Plus until the end of the Autumn Term, after which children who still need additional support will continue with the programme until the end of the year. From the start of the Spring term, pupils in Year 5 who need additional support with their reading, will have access to the Reading Plus programme until the end of the year.
- Quality Vehicle Texts are used to drive our English curriculum. This is in a bid to instil a love for reading but also presents pupils with the opportunity to learn from a diverse range of published authors from a variety of genres, cultures and time periods.
- In Nursery and Reception (EYFS), children have access to their own class library and take home a RWI book which is pitched at their reading level. Moreover, EYFS pupils take home two books per week to share with their family. Children in Key Stage One and Two take home either a stage or phonics book which is appropriate for their level, and a reading for pleasure book which they can choose based on their interests.
- Across school, pupils are encouraged to take their reading books home daily and are able to return and change their books when they are finished. In Key Stage One, it is recommended that pupils read their levelled book three-times before changing it in order to develop the children’s reading fluency.
Further Information
Please click on the link below if you would like some tips on how to help your child with their reading.
Rowlands-Gill-Primary-virtual-library
Nursery
In Nursery, pupils develop the building blocks from which they will learn to read. Children are taught the ‘pre-phonics’ skills that they will need before moving on to the Read, Write, Inc. Phonics (RWI) scheme when they are ready. The pre-phonics skills align with RWI and help the children to learn speaking and listening skills; phonological (sound) awareness; and oral blending (being able to join two distinct sounds together). In addition to working on pre-phonics skills, we have a selection of nursery rhymes which are practised daily and learned by heart, as well as having daily story time which we enjoy together as a class.
Reception
Reception children build on the key reading skills developed in Nursery by learning to read through the Read, Write, Inc. (RWI) phonics scheme which teaches children phoneme-grapheme correspondence (matching sounds with the letter(s) that make the sound and vice-versa).
As children become more secure with their phonics knowledge, they will begin to practise their reading skills with phonics reading books which will be matched to their level. These books help the children to build on the phonics work that they do in class each day.
By now, the children have a home-reading book which is changed weekly and a ‘home/school’ reading diary where parents and staff can share comments about reading at home and in school.
Key Stage 1
In Key stage one, the good work of Nursery and Reception is continued. Reading is taught through phonics, story time, 1:1 reading and guided group sessions for those who need extra support. There is still a strong emphasis on phonics (Read, Write, Inc.).
The main reading scheme is Read, Write, Inc and children’s phonic knowledge is assessed regularly. Children are then given books appropriate to their own phonic level.
The children in Key Stage One also love their story time and guided reading sessions! Texts are selected to engage children, to foster a love of reading, to expose children to a diversity of authors and characters, and to develop reading fluency and comprehension skills.
Children who need additional support with their reading, will be supported through a variety of intervention sessions including additional RWI phonics sessions and Gateshead Reading Fluency interventions sessions – which have been developed by the local authority to develop the reading fluency skills of young readers.
Key Stage 2
In Key Stage Two, pupils have access to a wide variety of books in our school library. Children are given the opportunity to get two home-reader books which they are encouraged to take home daily: a levelled book to practise their reading skills and a reading for pleasure book which pupils can choose for themselves.
Whole class guided reading sessions continue throughout Key Stage Two. The texts used in Key Stage Two cover a wide-range of genres from a variety of authors and expose children to a diverse catalogue of fiction and non-fiction.
Moreover, in Year 5/6, children are able to access a Reading Plus account which helps pupils to improve their reading fluency, speed and comprehension through a range of targeted texts, comprehension quizzes and vocabulary lessons.
Children who need additional support with their reading will be supported in a variety of ways. In Year 3 & 4, children will have access to additional RWI phonics sessions and Gateshead Reading Fluency interventions where appropriate. In Year 5 & 6, children will have access to Better Reading Partnership (BRP) interventions and additional Reading Plus sessions where appropriate. Moreover, Reading Between the Lines is used throughout Key Stage Two to support children whose reading comprehension is weaker than their reading fluency.
Paper planes
We made paper planes from our story and threw them around outside to see what verbs we can use to describe how they flew through the air. We then completed a poem about how they move focussing on past tense verbs.
Adding prefixes to root words
Learning about inspirational people
We enjoyed the stories our mystery reader chose today, learning about Jane Goodall and why she is inspirational. We discussed some endangered animals and the enjoyed reading a story about racing hamsters.
Mystery Reader
We enjoyed welcoming a mystery reader into our class today, listening to how all the different crayons felt on how much they were used when someone colours. We loved guessing who it might be and then listening to the story. Thank you!
Shall the crow travel to the sun- a conscience alley?
Making islands
We enjoyed making our own islands of where we thought Grandad might like to visit. We looked closely at the story to decide what we thought Grandad and Syd might like and incorporated our ideas into our island as well as things we thought were important.