Reading at Exeter Road Community Primary School

We believe that reading is a valuable and rewarding experience and that the importance of laying a firm foundation in this crucial area will allow children to access all areas of the curriculum successfully. We believe that success in reading opens doors to a world of knowledge. As reading is a complex skill with many components, Exeter Road Community Primary School has adopted a comprehensive and consistent approach to the teaching of these skills throughout the school.

Our aims:

· To develop a love of books and reading.

· To develop reading strategies and skills.

· To read and enjoy a variety of texts from a variety of sources: library, class book corners, ICT, and phonically decodable reading scheme.

 · To create a strong, embedded reading culture through a rich language environment.

· To deliver a structured and consistent whole-school approach to reading.

· To recognise the value of parents/carers as essential components in supporting and developing children’s reading skills and love of reading.

· To monitor and assess children’s progress in reading and provide early interventions.

Teaching and Learning of Reading

As reading is at the core of accessing all areas of the curriculum it is essential that at Exeter Road Community Primary School there is focused, and dedicated time given to the teaching of reading.

Phonics

At Exeter Road Community Primary School, we use Twinkl Phonics (DfE validated Scheme) to deliver a consistent and planned phonic progression for all children. Assessment resources are built into the scheme and used to quickly identify those children in need of additional support. Once identified Twinkl intervention resources are used to provide this support and help children make the desired progress. Twinkl Phonics is used up to the end of Year 2. In the Summer Term the Phonics Screening Check is undertaken with all Year 1 children as well as children in Year 2 where appropriate.

The teaching of reading will also include:

• Questioning about character/ story/ events/ structure/ plot/ information.
• Awareness of layout/features of a variety of text types.
• Awareness of punctuation.
• Prediction of the story or content of information books.
• Developing decoding skills of unfamiliar words.
• Awareness of the reading and spelling of common exception words/ tricky words.
• Deducing and clarifying meaning from context, syntax, and previous experience.
• Inferring information from texts.
• Scanning text for information and to support comprehension.
• Discussing the effectiveness of chosen language. 
• Encouraging talk and discussion in groups.
• Encouraging clear speaking and expression when reading texts aloud.
• Summarising the key points of texts.
• Listening to readers (teachers, parents, peers, visitors) modeling effective reading strategies.
• Sharing knowledge of books and authors, including preferences and recommendations
• Understanding how libraries work.

Individual/Independent Reading

All children will have a reading book to take home. Children will read phonically decodable books which align to their current phonic knowledge until they are secure with the phonic knowledge being taught. Once children have reached this point, they will choose book-banded books at the correct level for their reading ability. PM Benchmark Assessments are used to determine this. When children reach a certain stage in their reading and finish the reading book bands scheme, usually in year 5 or 6, they then become free readers and can choose from a wide range of books in the school library.