Intent
Reading lies at the heart of the English curriculum at Holy Innocents’. We are dedicated to enabling our pupils to become lifelong readers and we believe reading is key for academic success. At our school we place a high emphasis on literary skills so that children transition easily into their written work. Children are taught to read at every stage of their school life so that they experience a wide range of vocabulary and reading skills as they progress through each year group and, through this, we endeavour to create a love of reading within our school community.

Implementation
A love of reading:

• Teachers create warm and inviting reading corners where children are encouraged to spend time investigating books and selecting books to read for pleasure.
• In KS2, recommended books are banded with a pink sticker to encourage children to select high-quality and classic texts to read.
• Each day, teachers will dedicate time to read aloud to their class. They select high-quality texts that stimulate discussion and interest and are linked to the children’s writing focus or foundation topics.
• Engaging in ‘book-talk’ where teachers lead rich discussions about texts to develop deeper understanding.
• Holy Innocents’ hold whole school events such as World Book Day and travelling book club days where children dress up as their favourite characters, take part in assemblies and activities within class and are informed of the latest new books that are being released.
   

Phonics and Oxford Reading Tree Scheme

In Reception, children will be provided with a decodable book matched to sounds that they have been learning. They will enjoy this book at home and in school. They may also be provided with a book to share with adults at home as part of encouraging reading for pleasure.

In Year 2, children are introduced to the Oxford reading scheme books which are closely matched to their reading abilities. Children are expected to progress through the reading scheme throughout KS1 and LKS2 and will achieve this by reading at home daily with parents, reading with adults at school and through tracking their reading books in their reading records. By the end of Year 4, we expect all children to have finished the reading scheme and to be ‘free?reading’. They will be encouraged and supported to choose texts that excite them as well as scaffold their writing and vocabulary development.
 

Guided reading/whole-class reading

In EYFS, children will read decodable books as part of their structured Essential Letters and Sounds Phonics lessons. They may read in small groups or in pairs repeatedly to ensure the progression of fluency and expression when reading aloud.

In Year 2, children will be introduced to whole-class reading lessons which will help develop their confidence in reading texts aloud as well as their ability to study and discuss texts in detail. These sessions will focus on the key reading domains: vocabulary, inference, prediction, explanation, retrieval and summarising. Children will be exposed to a wide variety of text types and will be able to develop their fluency and comprehension skills under the guide of the teacher.

In KS2, children have three half hour whole-class reading sessions per week which are led by the teacher. During this, children are exposed to a variety of extracts from texts such as poems, classic books, song lyrics and non-fiction texts which will allow them to expand their reading abilities and understanding. Through a mixture of independent thinking, partnered talk, class discussion and independent work, children should secure a much deeper understanding of texts and why they are structured in particular ways. Children record their lessons in their whole-class reading exercise books so that teachers can continuously assess understanding.

Assessment and intervention

As children progress through school, their reading abilities are continuously tracked and recorded in their reading records as well as by teachers. The Oxford reading scheme is closely matched to reading ability and the colour bands alert teachers to the levels that children are currently decoding at. Children who are struggling with reading are supported through weekly reading interventions and daily 1:1 reading sessions with adults.

From Year 2, children will take the ‘Suffolk reading age’ tests twice a year which produces data about children’s reading levels. These are tracked as the children progress through school so that teachers are aware of progress.

Years 1,3,4 and 5 will sit an NFER comprehension test at the end of each term during assessment week. Years 2 and 6 will use past SATs papers for this. Standardised scores will be recorded and then translated into an assessment level.

Impact

By the time children leave Holy Innocents’, they are competent readers who can recommend books to their peers, have a thirst for reading a range of genres including poetry, and participate in discussions about books, including evaluating an author’s use of language and the impact this can have on the reader. They can also read books to enhance their knowledge and understanding of all subjects on the curriculum and communicate their research to a wider audience.