Reading
Reading is a very important area in school and we have a range of different activities planned throughout the day to ensure that everyone can succeed in their reading!
Power of Reading
Over the course of the year, each year group focuses much of their learning in English around carefully selected texts which are age-appropriate. These are taken from a range of authors, cultures and genres to ensure pupils are exposed to full range of texts which promote and foster a love of reading. Most of these texts have been recommended by the CLPE Power of Reading programme which has been designed to develop reading comprehension and writing composition, and foster a whole school love of reading and writing.
Our reading focused lessons are planned using the KS2 National Curriculum programmes of study for English to ensure the statutory requirements for Lower and Upper KS2 are taught.
Phonics
In school some of our children are working at an early stage of their reading and may need additional support to help them read and decode words using phonics. We now follow the 'Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised' Programme when teaching phonics because it is a systematic, synthetic approach, which is recommended as the most effective way for children to learn to read. Phonics learning is revisited on a regular basis throughout the week, with the aim for all children to make rapid progress, so they become fluent readers as quickly as possible.
Little Wandle have made a range of resources available which support parents with supporting phonics at home. Please visit their website to access these www.littlewandlelettersandsounds.org.uk/resources/for-parents/. Some of the most useful resources have also been added right for you to access.
Home Reading
Every week your child will bring books home which are carefully matched to the level of reading ability they are currently working at; all of these books have been chosen to develop and inspire a love of reading and to also target particular areas of reading which your child needs to focus on. Please take time to read the books which have been sent home with your child – every day is ideal! Don’t forget to write a comment whenever someone reads at home with them; this can be anyone at home who has time to listen to them read as any opportunity will make a difference to their ability to read. If your child is taking part in phonics sessions in school, they may also bring home grapheme lists and work linked to the sounds and tricky words they have been learning. Completing these at home will support learning in school and help them to secure important decoding skills so that they become fluent and more confident readers. Please feel free to use the resources on this page to support with reading at home.
Decodable Reading
Children who take part in phonics sessions will also participate in decodable reading sessions so that they have the opportunity to use and apply the sounds being taught in Phonics. During these sessions, they will be given fully decodable books from The Big Cat Phonics Little Wandle scheme which will introduce a wide variety of literature. These books are organised into sets that match the teaching sequence of the 'Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised' programme. They are matched to a child's secure phonic knowledge, with the aim they can be read with 90% accuracy. This ensures children are reading with good fluency, comprehension and can decode the words by sounding out and blending, and not by using any other strategy (e.g. the pictures). As well as using these books to decode words, they will also read them during comprehension sessions to develop important skills such as text retrieval, inference, summarising and predication as well as broadening their understanding of subject specific and contextual vocabulary.
Reading for Pleasure
In school all of our children have access to a wide variety of books. As well as texts they read in English lessons and the books they are given to read at home, all pupils are given the opportunity to choose a book of their choice from their class libraries and the school library to further develop a love of reading and encourage them to read for pleasure.
Staff in school have invested a lot of time and effort in choosing books for these areas e.g. visiting the local children's bookshop in Lindley and restocking our libraries using recommended reads from lists such as Pie Corbett's reading spines; CLPE book lists and The National Literacy Trust recommendations. Below are our recommended reads for Year 3 & 4 (LKS2) and Year 5 & 6 (UKS2). These are stories, poems, rhymes and non-fiction which have been chosen to develop pupils’ vocabulary, language comprehension and love of reading. Why don't you share and read some of the texts at home together?
The School Reading List website also contains a range of recommended reads for different ages and ability ranges within these age groups. Many of the books we have in school are included in these lists as they appeal to a wide range of interests, genres and subject matters. Below are links to the lists for each year group in KS2:
The website also contains helpful lists of books for children who are at an early stage of reading or are not yet confident enough to read books aimed at KS2 readers.
https://schoolreadinglist.co.uk/category/reading-lists-for-ks1-school-pupils/
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Cracking Comprehension
In Key Stage 2, the most important element of a child’s reading is their comprehension of a text; do they understand what they are reading? Cracking comprehension is a teaching tool that is used three times a week across the school to stretch and challenge pupils to help ensure they meet their age-related expectations in reading comprehension.
Lexia
This is a reading programme which develops a range of reading skills in children chosen to take part in it. Each chosen child receives a personalised programme based on building phonological awareness; fluency in reading; understanding of key vocabulary and comprehension skills.
Reading Friends
Having an adult listen to a child read is special as it allows the adult to check the child’s understanding of the text and help them become more fluent readers. In year 3, we have a special group of volunteers, Reading Friends, who work 1:1 with chosen children to support them with their reading. This gives them the opportunity to become much confident and competent readers as they move through school.
ERIC
What’s ERIC? Eric stands for EVERYBODY READING IN CLASS and is something which is very popular at Birkby Junior School! Each year group has allocated times where everyone (including the staff!) can sit back and enjoy their favourite books. We even invite parents & carers in to listen to their children read!
