Reading at The Pines

Keep reading – It’s one of the most marvellous adventures anyone can have.

Lloyd Alexsander

Vision and Intent

At The Pines, our vision for the teaching of Reading is that children will be confident, enthusiastic book-lovers who enjoy reading and are excited to talk about the books that they read. We want children to be inspired by books and read across a range of different genres and styles, as well as developing the Reading skills that will allow them to access the whole curriculum. 

We aim to:

• Teach children the necessary skills to enable them to become fluent, competent readers
• Encourage a love of reading so that children develop a life-long appreciation of books
• Provide access to high quality texts that promote vocabulary development and offer exposure to a range of literary styles and features
• Provide and promote a varied diet of books that open children’s eyes to new experiences, different cultures and global issues

Our Curriculum Drivers are reflected through our Reading curriculum as it:

Allows children to understand THEIR PLACE IN OUR WORLD, through exposure to books written by and containing stories from different cultures.
Encourages children to talk about and evaluate the books that they read, improving their skills in LANGUAGE & ORACY.
Enables children to LEARN the SKILLS needed to read fluently and to persevere when decoding and comprehending challenging vocabulary and texts. 
 Gives children the opportunity to choose books that allow them to escape to different worlds, promoting a HEALTHY MIND.

Implementation

Reading threads itself throughout the whole curriculum and therefore the teaching of Reading at The Pines happens in a variety of ways. Below highlights some of those ways. Please see the Reading Policy document for more information. 

Reading Scheme

The reading scheme that we use at school allows children to take books home to read that are matched to their reading ability. We endeavour to ensure that every child is able to read to an adult at least once a week in school allowing them to monitor a child's reading ability and issue them with books accordingly. In EYFS and KS1, children will read with an adult three times per week in accordance with the Little Wandle reading scheme. The reading scheme follows a coloured system that children are able to progress through, both from a basic phonics level up to becoming a 'free reader' and choosing books from the book corner or library to take home and read. Please see the attached reading policy below for more detail on colouring banding and end of year expectations. 

The Class Novel

Each class will be reading a class novel each half term. It will often, although not always, link to the curriculum learning that the children will be doing. We believe that reading to children is important for them to develop a love of reading and to be exposed to high quality reading from an adult. The class novel is read every day. The books were chosen so that each phase is exposed to a wide variety of different authors and characters from different cultural and religious backgrounds, as well as having a mixture of female and male authors and protagonists. We believe that ALL children should be able to 'see themselves' in the books that they are exposed to.

Whole Class Reading

We have implemented a 'Whole Class Reading' approach at The Pines. This approach allows children of all abilities to be exposed to both fiction and non fiction texts over the course of a week, as well as practicing their VIPERS skills. Children in EYFS and KS1 will read a book with an adult in a small group three times per week. In this session, they will focus on the skills of decoding, fluency/prosody and comprehension. At the end of KS1 and into KS2, 'Whole Class Reading' will generally take the form of 2 reading sessions about the class novel and 2 reading sessions centered around 2 non-fiction pieces that link to the Talk for Writing process.

Vipers

From Year 2 - Year 6, children will use 'Reading VIPERS'. This refers to different types of questions that children may be exposed to when they are doing Whole Class Reading. This approach was chosen as in encompasses all of the comprehension skills that children need to learn in a form that children are able to remember and speak about. They stand for the following:

V - Vocabulary 

I - Infer

P - Predict

E - Explain

R - Retrieve

S - Sequence or summarise

In KS1, children will initially answer questions orally about these by their teacher but will progress to more written responses in preparation for recording most reading lessons in books by KS2. 

Reading Assemblies

Each week, a member of staff prepares a reading assembly for the children in KS1 and KS2. They choose a different book and read a section from it, linking it to the theme of the week in order to engage the children and get them excited about reading. 

Library and Reading Nooks

The library at The Pines has recently been refurbished with new furniture and computer system. Children are able to visit the library to take out books with their classes, or during play and lunch times. There are also a number of 'Reading Nooks' around the school that are soft, inviting places for children to come and read books that have been selected as part of their curriculum learning. Children are able to access these at play and lunchtimes and share their books with friends. 

Assessing Reading

Initially, a child's phonics development is used to place them within book bands and then their reading fluency/comprehension as well as their ability to decode. In EYFS and KS1, children will be assessed in their phonic ability each half term which will inform the book that they use in their weekly reading sessions. At this level, children should be able to read books at 90% fluency. Into KS2, reading is formally assessed termly using PIXL tests. These are used to assess children's reading comprehension skills from Year 1 to Year 6.   Teacher assessment of these skills is used but we also have the Salford Reading test that can be used to gain more specific assessment information. Daily reading both in school and at home and the use of reading records to record the books a child is reading allows teachers to assess a child's reading ability through the use of banded reading books as well as their own professional judgement. 

Key Documents

Impact

The impact of our Reading teaching is evidenced through teacher assessment, PIXL assessments and lesson observations. Discussions with children and pupil voice surveys provide evidence of confidence, engagement and attitudes towards Reading. The written and spoken outcomes of children’s learning demonstrate that they know more, can do more and remember more in Reading.

 - Children at The Pines love Reading and have a life-long appreciation of books

 - Children’s confidence in Reading is high and they are fluent and competent in their reading ability

 - Children have a diverse knowledge of texts of all genres 

 - Children have knowledge of a varied diet of books that have opened their eyes to new experiences, different cultures and global issues