Reading

Intent

At Market Drayton Infant and Nursery School we are determined that every child will learn to read by Year 2.

 Our reading curriculum aims:

1. To provide a structured and systematic approach to the learning and teaching of phonics. From January 2022, we are implementing the Essential Letters and Sounds (ELS) programme for the teaching of phonics. 
2. To ensure children make good progress in their acquisition of phonic knowledge and have books with the sounds they have learnt, while they are learning to read.
3. To ensure children’s phonic knowledge supports their acquisition of reading and writing skills, including correct letter formation and handwriting.
4. To develop children’s comprehension and understanding of a range of texts using the simple model of reading.
5. To develop a love of reading and literature.  

The detail of our phonics programmes is under the phonics section.

Implementation

Teaching of reading at Market Drayton Infant and Nursery School

 There are five methods involved in the teaching of reading:

• Phonics (see the phonics section)
• Individual reading 
• Guided reading
• Whole class reading
• Developing a love of reading

Phonics

For the teaching of Phonics, we use Essential Letters and Sounds Phonics Programme.  More information can be found on the phonics section about the teaching and learning of phonics. 

Individual Reading

Individual reading books are directly linked to the phonics programme and match the individual children's needs.  The book given to your child will closely match the sounds and the 'hard to read and spell' words (for example, said,one) that your child has been learning in the class.  Each child will be given one book a week. 

As your child moves through school and has reached the expected standards in phonics (for the majority of children this is by the end of year 1), they will get a book that is 'non-decodable'; this means that your child has learnt enough phonics to be able to read more challenging texts that do not always rely on the children being able to sound out and blend the words. 

Children who are struggling with their reading will get additional one to one support and may be heard read more regularly so that they can catch up with their peers. 

Guided Reading

Guided Reading is the method used to teach individual children to become fluent in reading and develop their comprehension skills. Guided reading starts in years 1 and 2.   Children are put into groups of up to 6 children and all of the children have the same book, which is just above the level that they are reading.  It gives an opportunity for the children to practice reading fluently and for them to develop their comprehension and understanding of  texts. 

Whole Class Reading

The whole class teaching of reading follows many of the principles of guided reading, but is accessed by the whole class with a text that challenges and may be returned to a number of times over the week. It can be used for:

- Reinforcing phonics strategies

- Vocabulary development

- Improving fluency

- Developing comprehension

The teacher will need to have a clear focus for the lesson linked to one of the above. To support the delivery of whole class teaching of reading some of the resources used are:

- Whole class sets of books (shared 1 between 2)

- John Murray Comprehension (Y2)

Developing a Love of Reading

Reading for pleasure is just as important as giving the children books linked to their learning and each week they will be given the opportunity to choose a book from the class library. Nursery have a lending library on a Wednesday and den in a bag once a week.

Use of the library

Children will have a book from the class library to take home each week as well as their reading book.

The main school library is really well stocked and it opens at lunch times at least once per week.  

Storytime

Telling stories is something that we make sure we do a lot of in our schools.  To make sure that the children have a range of books that we cover, we use a 'reading spine'.  The reading spine gives a range of books to cover within the year group and this forms the basis for the choice of our texts as well as our author collection. 

Author collections

We think that it is important the the children get to know a range of authors.  We have put together author collections which mean that the children can get to know various authors and this will help to broaden their reading choices.  

Choosing Books for Children

The reading spine books are used in school to share with the children during story time.  A selection of them are available in the library and will be available in the library for the children to take out on loan.  Having the spine helps to ensure that there is not an overlap in the books that the children are reading.

The spine will give guidance to children, teachers and parents on the books that they can read to develop the children as readers .  It will help to ensure that the children read a broad range of books and develop their vocabulary in order to become successful readers in the future.

We hope it is useful and  your children enjoy reading the books and poems recommended.  Enjoy!

If you want to find out more about how the reading spine works, watch this video by Miss Graham which explains what the 'Plagues of Reading' are.  There are also some other links which will help you in supporting your child to choose books and enjoy reading. 

Online Books

There are a range of online books for children.  Here are some that you can access for free. 

CDK offers popular children’s books from all over the world.’The materials in the collection, all presented in the original languages in which they were published, reflect similarities and differences in cultures, societies, interests, and lifestyles of peoples around the world.’

With a large and growing collection of eBooks for kids 1 to 13 years old, your children get to enjoy new books all the time from award winning authors and publishers from around the world. In addition to titles you are familiar with from traditional publishers, they also have the opportunity to discover new stories from authors they've never heard of, or try out new languages they've never seen.’

A free book collection developed for children aged 3–11 years old. Help your young child learn to read, and love to read, with our range of over 100 free eBooks.

Check out the children's section to find more fun reading activities for you to do at home!

Working with Parents

In Reception parents are expected to attend a phonics workshop in the autumn term.   

A parents leaflet is available to give you further guidance about how you can support your child when reading at home. This is particularly useful once your child moves into Years 1 and 2. 

It is our aim that a parent should hear their child read Monday-Thursday and once at the weekend.  The class teacher will communicate with families who are not reading regularly with their child at home to encourage them and support them with this.  

Supporting Children with Special Educational Needs

Pupils should have access to a broad and balanced curriculum. The National Curriculum Inclusion Statement states that teachers should set high expectations for every pupil, whatever their prior attainment. We recognise that learning to read is key for children to succeed in all areas of the curriculum and as a life skill. 

Effective quality first teaching is the key to enabling all children to to develop their reading skills.  This starts with the teaching of early phonics in early years, where children are learning to discriminate sounds through to the Essential Letters and Sounds Phonics Programme in Reception and KS1. All children have access to whole class teaching of reading comprehension as they move through the school.  This is the same in every subject and differentiation is adjusted as expectations of individual pupils change as they progress. Challenge and support specific to reading and phonics may include:

• Using a set of carefully planned resources to support the ELS programme where children are falling behind
• Daily individual reading for the lowest 20% of pupils in each class
• Use of equipment, such as magnetic letters to support
• Varying comprehension questioning
• Pre-teaching as well as understanding more advance vocabulary
• Modelling by the teacher
• Providing more adult support for those needing it
• Partner or group work - a collaborative approach to learning
• Opportunities to revisit books
• Use of overlays for children who may be experiencing visual stress

Impact

The phonics section gives an outline of how we assess and keep track in phonics.

To assess reading comprehension and reading stamina, we use both formative and summative assessment.  Formative assessment is ongoing and we do this through teaching the children in guided read and whole class reading sessions.  We have a series of performance indicators in years 1 and 2 that we have split down into termly blocks; this allows us to really focus on the key aspects of comprehension that we need use.  When understanding texts, we teach the children to:

• Retrieve
• Explore
• Deduce and Infer

These are revisited each term and build on the previous term and previous learning; this is know as interleaving.

Summative assessment is when we get an overview of where the children are at a point in time in relation to aged related expectations.  We use the following for this:

• Early Learning Goals (Teacher assessment at the end of Reception)
• Salford Reading Age Assessment  (Termly from Year 1)
• NFER Reading Assessment (Termly from Spring Term, Year 1)
•  

Developing a love of reading

We know that the children really enjoy reading and listening to stories. Here are some of the things that they said to us when we spoke to them about their love of books and reading.