The Teaching of Reading at Old Earth
At Old Earth the teaching of reading is a high priority as it provides the key to accessing so much of the curriculum. We have a multi-faceted approach with the teaching of systematic synthetic phonics providing the foundation to this. We offer as many opportunities as possible for children to read in both formal and informal settings.
PHONICS
Our approach to teaching phonics begins in Nursery and continues through the Foundation Stage and into Key Stage One. Any children who have not reached the required standard by the end of Key Stage One will continue with a personalised phonics intervention programme in Key Stage Two. It is important to be consistent in the teaching of phonics, so throughout school we follow, Letters and Sounds: Principles and Practice of High Quality Phonics. This is a programme that aims to develop pupils’ speaking and listening skills, as well as preparing pupils for learning to read by developing their phonic knowledge and skills. It sets out a detailed programme for teaching phonics with the aim of children becoming fluent readers by the end of Year Two. We use the multi-sensory approach that is advocated using a wide range of resources, including many web-based resources that can also be accessed through the school website. Children are exposed to the Stages of Letters and Sounds that are appropriate for their age and any children who experience difficulty in retaining what they have been taught are helped with intervention in small groups. During your child’s time in school you will be offered the opportunity to attend workshops which help you to understand the way we teach phonics in school and how children are tested at Year 1.
READING SCHEME
Our school reading scheme contains a wide variety of books from many of the published schemes; Oxford Reading Tree, Story Chest, Phonics Bug, Rigby Rocket, Ginn, Alphakids. A few of the books can be decoded entirely using phonics but most require children to employ a range of reading strategies. The books have been carefully ranked and increase in difficulty for a while, the difficulty then levels off to help children to gain confidence and fluency at that level. The aim of our scheme is to develop fluent, competent readers who understand what they have read. The scheme contains books from different genres so that children get used to reading stories, poems, play-scripts, fiction and non-fiction. We have many parents and grandparents who, along with teachers and teaching assistants, provide children with many opportunities to read in school and have their books changed very regularly. It is also expected that children will read at home most days. Reading records are sent home with reading books and we aim to work in partnership with parents in helping children both to learn to read and to love reading. Once children become competent readers they access ‘free- readers’ and for children who begin to fall behind with their reading we provide the ‘Rainbow Readers’ intervention programme to help to accelerate progress. To download a copy of our reading scheme click here.
GUIDED READING
Guided Reading begins in Reception and continues throughout school. Children are grouped and share a text with a well-trained adult at least once a week. These sessions are intended to be pleasurable and to help to foster a real enjoyment for reading. The books are carefully chosen to offer challenge and a wide range of genres and subject matter. Some of the books are from published schemes and some are sets of novels or non- fiction texts. The aim of guided reading is to challenge children with texts that are slightly beyond their current reading level in order to develop their decoding and higher order comprehension skills.
READING ACROSS THE CURRICULUM AND BEYOND
Reading is a fundamental part of much of the school curriculum. In Literacy children analyse texts and some of our topics are based around books and stories. Children in Reception pair up with a ‘Reading Buddy’ from Year Five to share stories, and this friendship continues into Years One and Six with the Year Six children creating a ‘pop-up’ book, based around their buddy’s interests, as part of their Design Technology. Teachers also run extra-curricular clubs where reading is the focus. Younger children enjoy the ‘I Love Books’ club whilst Key Stage Two children have the opportunity to use e-books in an after-school club. We also invite a Book Fair into school twice yearly and children visit this with their teachers and parents.
SCHOOL AND CLASS LIBRARIES
All classes have well stocked class libraries that have many genres of books appropriate to age. The books are attractively presented to encourage children to move from the more formal process of learning to read to reading for pleasure. The school library is on the ‘Learning Bus’ and Key Stage Two children have the opportunity to visit this at lunchtimes and younger children will visit at other times with their class teacher or teaching assistant. Key Stage One and Foundation Stage children often have the opportunity to share books in the amphitheatre with play-leaders at lunchtime.
PHONICS
Our approach to teaching phonics begins in Nursery and continues through the Foundation Stage and into Key Stage One. Any children who have not reached the required standard by the end of Key Stage One will continue with a personalised phonics intervention programme in Key Stage Two. It is important to be consistent in the teaching of phonics, so throughout school we follow, Letters and Sounds: Principles and Practice of High Quality Phonics. This is a programme that aims to develop pupils’ speaking and listening skills, as well as preparing pupils for learning to read by developing their phonic knowledge and skills. It sets out a detailed programme for teaching phonics with the aim of children becoming fluent readers by the end of Year Two. We use the multi-sensory approach that is advocated using a wide range of resources, including many web-based resources that can also be accessed through the school website. Children are exposed to the Stages of Letters and Sounds that are appropriate for their age and any children who experience difficulty in retaining what they have been taught are helped with intervention in small groups. During your child’s time in school you will be offered the opportunity to attend workshops which help you to understand the way we teach phonics in school and how children are tested at Year 1.
READING SCHEME
Our school reading scheme contains a wide variety of books from many of the published schemes; Oxford Reading Tree, Story Chest, Phonics Bug, Rigby Rocket, Ginn, Alphakids. A few of the books can be decoded entirely using phonics but most require children to employ a range of reading strategies. The books have been carefully ranked and increase in difficulty for a while, the difficulty then levels off to help children to gain confidence and fluency at that level. The aim of our scheme is to develop fluent, competent readers who understand what they have read. The scheme contains books from different genres so that children get used to reading stories, poems, play-scripts, fiction and non-fiction. We have many parents and grandparents who, along with teachers and teaching assistants, provide children with many opportunities to read in school and have their books changed very regularly. It is also expected that children will read at home most days. Reading records are sent home with reading books and we aim to work in partnership with parents in helping children both to learn to read and to love reading. Once children become competent readers they access ‘free- readers’ and for children who begin to fall behind with their reading we provide the ‘Rainbow Readers’ intervention programme to help to accelerate progress. To download a copy of our reading scheme click here.
GUIDED READING
Guided Reading begins in Reception and continues throughout school. Children are grouped and share a text with a well-trained adult at least once a week. These sessions are intended to be pleasurable and to help to foster a real enjoyment for reading. The books are carefully chosen to offer challenge and a wide range of genres and subject matter. Some of the books are from published schemes and some are sets of novels or non- fiction texts. The aim of guided reading is to challenge children with texts that are slightly beyond their current reading level in order to develop their decoding and higher order comprehension skills.
READING ACROSS THE CURRICULUM AND BEYOND
Reading is a fundamental part of much of the school curriculum. In Literacy children analyse texts and some of our topics are based around books and stories. Children in Reception pair up with a ‘Reading Buddy’ from Year Five to share stories, and this friendship continues into Years One and Six with the Year Six children creating a ‘pop-up’ book, based around their buddy’s interests, as part of their Design Technology. Teachers also run extra-curricular clubs where reading is the focus. Younger children enjoy the ‘I Love Books’ club whilst Key Stage Two children have the opportunity to use e-books in an after-school club. We also invite a Book Fair into school twice yearly and children visit this with their teachers and parents.
SCHOOL AND CLASS LIBRARIES
All classes have well stocked class libraries that have many genres of books appropriate to age. The books are attractively presented to encourage children to move from the more formal process of learning to read to reading for pleasure. The school library is on the ‘Learning Bus’ and Key Stage Two children have the opportunity to visit this at lunchtimes and younger children will visit at other times with their class teacher or teaching assistant. Key Stage One and Foundation Stage children often have the opportunity to share books in the amphitheatre with play-leaders at lunchtime.
GRAMMAR, PUNCTUATION AND SPELLING (GPS)
The new curriculum places a strong emphasis on Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling. The Glossary that accompanies the Programmes of Study in English can be found at:
www.gov.uk/government/uploads/english/glossary
At Old Earth we have recognised the need for children to be taught grammar, punctuation and spelling discretely for a number of years and our Year 6’s have performed very well in the GPS SAT each year since it was introduced. Children are taught the age-appropriate grammar and punctuation through differentiated class lessons and children who have not grasped certain concepts are provided with focussed intervention to help their understanding in areas where they may be having difficulty. We then expect children to apply what they have learnt in their independent writing tasks across the curriculum.
Spellings are linked to the phases in phonics for Key Stage 1 children and high frequency and ‘tricky’ words are added into the spelling lists. In Key Stage Two the spellings are taken from age- appropriate lists and differentiated according to ability.
The new curriculum places a strong emphasis on Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling. The Glossary that accompanies the Programmes of Study in English can be found at:
www.gov.uk/government/uploads/english/glossary
At Old Earth we have recognised the need for children to be taught grammar, punctuation and spelling discretely for a number of years and our Year 6’s have performed very well in the GPS SAT each year since it was introduced. Children are taught the age-appropriate grammar and punctuation through differentiated class lessons and children who have not grasped certain concepts are provided with focussed intervention to help their understanding in areas where they may be having difficulty. We then expect children to apply what they have learnt in their independent writing tasks across the curriculum.
Spellings are linked to the phases in phonics for Key Stage 1 children and high frequency and ‘tricky’ words are added into the spelling lists. In Key Stage Two the spellings are taken from age- appropriate lists and differentiated according to ability.
