Reading & Early Reading
In EYFS and KS1, children learn to read through the systematic phonics programme from Little Wandle. This highly-structure approach enables children to develop strong phonological awareness for early reading. Children take part in a phonics lesson every day and use the accompanying fully-decodable phonics books to embed their reading skills. These books are then accessed at home by parents using the Collins BigCat eReader website. Additionally, children are provided with “real books” which parents can share with them to encourage an enjoyment of reading together for pleasure. These books may not be fully-decodable but can be read by an adult to expose children to wider range of vocabulary and experiences.
Reading Beyond Phonics
Once children have completed the Little Wandle programme, they progress onto the Collins Big Cat reading scheme, which is the next step after Little Wandle. To guarantee good comprehension, we ask that parents ensure their child reads each book a minimum of three times at home with an adult before they are permitted to change it. This is so that they gain a thorough understanding of the text before moving on, rather than simply decoding the text. We expect this to be the case up until the point where children are ready to read longer chapter books. Reading Records are checked daily by Meadows staff to ensure children are reading regularly with an adult at home.
Children who have mastered the skills of reading required are then free to choose their own books, either from home, or from our array of texts in the main library and class libraries. These do not have to be read more than once, as children at this stage of reading will have already established excellent comprehension skills.
Reading Lessons
The teaching of comprehension from the end of the Little Wandle programme consists of four weekly lessons. The first focuses on the basic skill of retrieval. We use Comprehension Ninja resources to ensure progression across the school. These are presented in a similar way to National Curriculum assessments, so that children begin to become familiar with the way these questions are presented.
The remaining three lessons during the week are based on the ‘Hooked on Books’ approach devised by Jane Considine. In lesson one, children read from their whole class novel / poetry book / information book, and discuss the meaning of unfamiliar vocabulary. During lesson two, ‘Book Talk’, children work in mixed ability pairs to discuss in depth the remaining content domains with a focus from the ‘Reading Rainbow’, such as inferences, authorial choice, and prediction using information from the text to support their answers. In this lesson, children are challenged to use ‘Tier 2’ vocabulary to help them structure their responses. Finally, lesson three is where we explore written comprehension based on what has been discussed and learnt during the Book Talk lesson. Children learn to develop longer, more detailed answers through the support of modelling by their teachers. During lessons two and three, the same text from lesson one is used, to ensure children have the opportunity to revisit the text three times in order to rinse the maximum amount of understanding from it.
Reading for Pleasure
Reading for pleasure is a high priority in our school. Consequently, we are continually seeking to invest in the latest texts for children to share and welcome the Scholastic Book Fayre twice yearly. Additionally, we are providing a “10-minute pledge” to read from a book from our reading spine each day just for the enjoyment of a good text. We also engage in author visits throughout the year and celebrate World Book Day with gusto.
The result of our work at The Meadows means that children are able to:
- develop a positive attitude towards reading. Reading should be an enjoyable and meaningful experience for both study and pleasure
- become confident, fluent and accurate readers
- attain excellent phonic knowledge and skills
- develop an extensive and rich vocabulary
- engage with a wide variety of texts that develop an extensive knowledge of the wider world
