Reading & Phonics - UKS2

OUR READING CURRICULUM INTENT

We want all children to have the understanding, that reading is something for everyone not just the few: they will be taught to fluently decode as well as comprehend.  All children in our school will develop their self-concept as readers and develop a clear picture of their personal “reading identity”. We want all children to derive pleasure from reading, be it immersion in the escapism of fiction or acquiring new knowledge and critical thinking skills through non-fiction.

“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go. ― Dr. Seuss,  

Reading

The essential aim of our reading curriculum is to instil a love of reading that will stay with the children throughout their lives. We know that children who are fluent, confident readers will be more able to access the whole curriculum and will achieve better outcomes in all areas of the curriculum. 

In school children will have regular opportunities to read for pleasure and to an audience.  They will be encouraged to read to celebrate and extend their learning.

Through a planned programme of teaching reading will progress from decoding, to fluency, to comprehension, through one to one reading, whole class reading and modelled/ shared reading.

Our goal is to teach the children the skills to progress from reading scheme books to being able to select their own books from a varied range of genres that suit their ability. 

A home-school reading partnership is fostered through the school, whereby children are encouraged to bring books home to share with their families.  As well as promoting reading, this gives the school and parents an opportunity to regularly communicate about children’s reading.

• Reading is carried out daily, through reading fluency sessions, whole class reading, or quiet reading sessions.
• Daily spelling lesson includes work on phonics and letter patterns.
• Work in English is regularly planned around a class text which is read alongside the other activities.  We have a visual literacy unit each term.  Good quality texts are chosen for the class to enjoy every half term.
• Reading occurs in all curriculum areas.
• In class, reading journals are often used as a way of recording personal views, opinions, thoughts and responses to texts and specific questions in whole class reading sessions.
• Children have freedom to choose their own reading books for pleasure, teachers model this through their own love of reading. Children who are not fully fluent will be guided to select reading books at the appropriate level for their need
• Children requiring further additional support with independent reading strategies will be supported with phonics, small group sessions, 1 to 1 or fluency groups.

Reading in the classroom

• We use a range of high quality texts as a vehicle for our English lessons. All children have the opportunity to listen to stories both read and told to them.
• When delivering whole class reading text, we pre-teach vocabulary to ensure understanding.
• Fluency reading techniques are used by both the teacher and children. We discuss the plot, characters, etc. and the focus for the lesson will be a particular skill such as prediction, retrieval or inference.
• When answering comprehension questions children are taught reading skills such as skimming and scanning. A follow-up task is given so children can reflect on what they have read and provides an opportunity for the teacher to observe/assess the individual understanding of a piece.
• We encourage the children to read at home and expect them to read to parents/carers at least 3 times per week. Children have the opportunity to change their home/school reading book every day. A reading activity is set via Seesaw every week, this doesn’t always require a written response but children are issued with a journal to record their thoughts and observations.

Breadth of study and progression in reading

We carefully plan the different text types we are going to study in our English and Reading lessons, to ensure full coverage of the curriculum, alongside the children's interests and our topics.

Our year group reading lists

Each age phase has drawn up a list of carefully selected texts, that they will be using across each curriculum cycle as a focus for their teaching and class readers.

These are not the only texts read: other books are also enjoyed throughout the year (for example when reading whole class stories for pleasure, in whole school events and competitions, Whole Class reading lesson extracts)

The books are chosen through taking in to account:

• Topic themes and English objective coverage
• Age range, ability, varied genres and interests of the classes
• Tackling the “Plagues of Reading”, which help children engage with high level texts, which present challenges to the reader

Please see below the lists for each age phase - (which are regularly reviewed by teaching teams). These do change at times, to reflect curriculum modifications.