READING AT CHRISTOPHER PICKERING

“Reading feeds the imagination, it expands horizons and offers new and exciting ways of seeing and making sense of our lives and of the world around us.” Michael Morpurgo.

Intent

Here at Christopher Pickering Primary School, we want children to establish an appreciation and love of reading at all stages of their learning journey. We are committed to sharing high quality and vocabulary rich texts across the curriculum so that children may develop knowledge of themselves and the world in which they live. We encourage our pupils to discover new information and develop their comprehension skills by reading widely using both fiction and non-fiction texts which are linked to their topics across the curriculum.

By the time our pupils leave Christopher Pickering Primary School, we envisage that they will be competent readers who can recommend books to their peers, seek out books from a range of different genres including poetry and engage in discussion about authorial choices or impact on the reader. Once our pupils have unlocked the key to reading here with us at Christopher Pickering, it is our intention that they will be able to apply their reading skills in order to access any subject in their secondary education and beyond.

Implementation

We will support all children to learn to read through clear leadership; consistent teaching and learning approaches; regular monitoring and assessment along with a joint commitment between school and home. Reading teachers, with support from the Reading Leaders, draw upon careful observations and continuous assessment to ensure children are challenged and to identify children who may need additional support. Timely intervention is planned for those children working below expected levels as soon as their needs are identified so that pupils can keep up and not catch up. All children read aloud during phonics or whole class reading. In addition, some pupils may read at least once more per week with a teacher, teaching assistant or reading volunteer. At Christopher Pickering Primary School, the systematic teaching of phonics has high priority in Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1. We use the synthetic phonics teaching programme Read Write Inc. (RWI) Phonics as a basis to teach our pupils to read and write. Pupils usually complete the programme by Year 2; some may even finish towards the end of Year 1. Pupils in Lower Key Stage 2 who need extra support with decoding may also follow the programme. Alongside developing reading fluency, vocabulary, inference and prediction skills are taught through a whole class reading approach. High quality texts are chosen so that all children are exposed to quality literature. Children are challenged with their thinking to ensure a deep understanding of the text and skills they are learning.  Reading for pleasure is promoted by all members of staff through as daily story time is prioritised.

 Impact

Through the teaching of systematic phonics, our aim is for children to become fluent readers by the end of Key Stage 1. With decoding taught as the prime approach to reading, pupils will become familiar with this strategy and have the confidence to work out unfamiliar words in any new texts they encounter even when they have come to the end of the RWI programme. Pupils will have the opportunity to develop their fluency and comprehension as they move through the school; accessing a range of texts independently. Attainment in reading is measured using statutory assessments such as the end of EYFS, Key Stage 1 and 2 and following the outcomes in the Year 1 Phonics Screening check. Additionally, we track our own reading attainment through the use of RWI half termly and screening assessments,  termly NTS reading papers plus ongoing teacher assessment. More importantly, we believe that reading is the key to unlock all learning and so the impact of our reading goes beyond the statutory assessments. We give all the children the opportunity to enter the amazing new worlds that a book opens up to them and share texts from a range of cultures or genres to inspire them to question or seek out more for themselves. We want reading to be the golden thread running through a child’s journey at Christopher Pickering . When they leave us, we want pupils to possess the reading skills and love of literature which will help them to enjoy and access any aspects of learning they encounter in the future.