Reading
Intent
At Billinge St Aidan’s CE Primary School, we passionately believe that reading is a key life skill and the foundation of our curriculum. We aim to create a life-long love of reading and books, and to ensure that every child can read to a high standard and for pleasure. Reading improves language and vocabulary, feeds pupils’ imaginations and opens up new worlds of wonder and joy to curious young minds. We believe that it is vital to give every child the tools to develop into confident, fluent and enthusiastic readers both in school and at home. We strive to enable all of our pupils to form good reading habits and to fully engage and competently evaluate a wide variety of high-quality texts whilst forming and developing their own opinions. We want our children to succeed but - most importantly - to leave our school with a passion for reading that will never leave them.
Implementation
Whole-class Guided Reading and Book Talk sessions are planned around quality texts, predominantly from the 'St Aidan's Reading Journey' and, when appropriate, linked to the wider curriculum. Texts are selected to ensure enjoyment and challenge whilst also providing opportunities for pupils to read a wide and varied range of text types, authors and genre.
Planning is sequenced to make certain that skills and strategies address the requirements of the National Curriculum and that children explore the full range of domains in relation to reading for understanding. The skills required to deepen comprehension, consolidate fluency and answer text-related questions are taught through teacher modelling and paired, small-group and whole-class discussion.
Whole-class Guided Reading sessions are planned to ensure that children read age-appropriate texts. These sessions are explicitly planned to include VIPERS (Vocabulary, Inference, Predict, Explain, Retrieve, Summarise, and Connect/Compare/Authors questions in KS1) questions which require a written response.
Book Talk sessions are planned around the layers and lenses of the 'Reading Rainbow' (which can be found in the files below). These sentence starters require individual or paired oral responses that include evidencing their thoughts. Within the Guided Reading sessions, a Book Talk question, requiring a written response, is added to evidence the skills learnt through the oral feedback sessions.
Below is a comprehensive list of the weekly "Reading Offer" in each year group.
Reading in EYFS
Reading display of books read.
One guided reading session per week.
Monster Phonics books and banded books o home with a reading record (3 times a week).
Daily Monster Phonics lessons.
Daily Monster Phonics intervention sessions for any pupil requiring further teaching.
Sticker incentive when pupils read at home - prizes per half term.
'Reading in an unusual place' display.
Reading in Year 1
'We Love Reading' display linked to current class text.
Minimum of 5 whole-class reading sessions (4 Monster Phonics with a daily linked Book Talk sentence starter).
Monster Phonics books and banded books go home with a Reading Record book to be completed.
Monster Phonics intervention sessions for any pupil requiring further teaching.
Reading in Year 2
'We Love Reading' display linked to current class text.
A reading incentive scheme using themed bookmarks as a reward.
Minimum of 5 whole-class reading sessions (4 Monster Phonics, 1 Book Talk and 1 Guided Reading).
Monster Phonics books and banded books go home with a Reading Record book to be completed.
Monster Phonics intervention sessions for any pupil requiring further teaching.
Reading in Year 3
'We Love Reading' display linked to current class text.
A reading incentive scheme using themed bookmarks as a reward.
Minimum of 3 whole-class Reading sessions (2 Book Talk and a minimum of 1 Guided Reading).
Pupils' choice of Reading for Pleasure books/banded books which are then referenced in Reading Journals, which are completed by the pupil and monitored by the class teacher.
Lowest 30% of readers in class complete additional daily reading sessions.
Intervention packages, which can include IDL, Toe to Toe and Monster Phonics.
Reading in Year 4
'We Love Reading' display linked to current class text.
A reading incentive scheme using themed bookmarks as a reward. This is displayed in class.
4 whole-class Reading sessions (2 Book Talk and 2 Guided Reading).
Pupils' choice of Reading for Pleasure books/banded books which are then referenced in Reading Journals, which are completed by the pupil and monitored by the class teacher.
Lowest 30% of readers in class complete additional daily reading sessions.
Intervention packages, which can include IDL, Toe to Toe and Monster Phonics.
Reading in Years 5 and 6
'We Love Reading' display linked to current class text.
A reading incentive scheme using themed bookmarks as a reward. This is displayed in class.
4 whole-class Reading sessions (minimum of 1 Book Talk and 2 Guided Reading).
Pupils' choice of Reading for Pleasure books which are then referenced in Reading Journals, which are completed by the pupil and monitored by the class teacher.
Lowest 30% of readers in class complete additional daily reading sessions.
Intervention packages, which can include IDL, Toe to Toe and Monster Phonics.
Impact
Children will develop into enthusiastic and knowledgeable readers; creative and skilled writers; self-assured speakers and perceptive listeners. They will carry with them the knowledge, skills and attitudes which will make them lifelong learners and valuable future citizens.
At Billinge St Aidan’s CE Primary School, pupils’ books in all areas of the Beacon Curriculum demonstrate where literacy skills have been taught, built upon and used in various contexts and genres. The vast majority of our pupils talk positively about literacy and are enthusiastic, passionate readers who love to discuss and share their ideas. Our pupils consistently achieve above the national average in Reading and Writing at the end of Key Stage 2. Progress in areas of English is almost always above that which is expected.
