Broadoak Primary School

Reading at Broadoak

Our Aims

‘Children who read for pleasure are likely to do significantly better at school than their peers, making greater progress in mathematics, development of vocabulary and spelling.’

Sullivan & Brown, Social inequalities in cognitive scores at age 16: The role of reading, 2013

Our aim at Broadoak is that every child should read for pleasure and enjoyment. Reading should be fun and fuel our children’s imagination, opening up a world of wonder and joy for their young, curious minds.

We encourage children to read widely across both fiction and non- fiction to develop their knowledge of themselves and the world in which we live, to establish an appreciation and love of reading, and to gain knowledge across the curriculum. With this in mind, at Broadoak each class has a DEAR (Drop Everything and Read) session each day where the class teacher spends ten minutes reading the class reader. This is a good opportunity for the children to firstly sit and enjoy being read to but secondly to also hear stories as a model for how to read with expression and engage the children in the book.

The Teaching of Reading

Our teaching of reading consists of two dimensions: word reading and comprehension. Different kinds of teaching are needed for each as outlined below.

Phonics

At Broadoak Primary School, we recognise that the ability to read independently is one of the most important skills that we can teach our children from the very earliest age. It allows access to all other areas of the curriculum and is a vital life skill. The most effective way of teaching young children to read is through a structured phonics programme. Therefore, in order for our children to read any kind of text fluently and confidently, and to read for enjoyment, the systematic teaching of reading through phonics is vital.

To support the planning and delivery of phonics in school, we use the ‘Supersonic Phonic Friends’ Programme (SPF) which has been validated by the DFE as a synthetic, systematic approach to phonics.

In Reception and KS1, phonics sessions are taught daily for 30 minutes and have a clear structure following the model: Revisit &Review, Teach, Practise and Apply.

To learn more about SPF please click on the link below:

Home - Supersonic Phonic Friends

Phonics in Early Years and Key Stage One

Our aim is that all children are fluent, competent readers by the end of Key Stage One, who enjoy reading for pleasure and exploring new texts. We teach children to have a phonemic awareness, aural discrimination of sounds and rhyme awareness in order to use these when reading and spelling.

The teaching of reading begins from the very moment the children enter school in Nursery. Children are immersed in phonic activities which include tuning in to sounds, listening to and remembering sounds and talking about sounds. They will focus on sound discrimination (environmental sounds, instrumental sounds and body percussion) and phonological awareness (rhythm, rhyme, alliteration and oral blending and segmenting). These are taught discreetly during daily phonics sessions but also deeply embedded within our language rich provision.

Children in Reception are immersed in stories and rhyme to support their reading and their phonological awareness. They take part in daily phonics sessions. Phonics activities are also set up in provision for children to practise and rehearse their newly learnt skills taught in sessions. These are sometimes guided but often independent. They are also read to daily by class teachers and are encouraged to enjoy a range of books with activities centred upon class texts. Children in Reception take home a phonics reading book each week which is closely matched to their phonetic ability and will support their learning in phonics. They also have a phonics mat to support their learning and a phonics newsletter is sent home on a weekly or fortnightly basis to support learning at home. The children also have a 50 Brilliant Book which they take home to share with adults at home and to encourage a love of reading.

Phonics continues to be taught in Year 1 during discreet, daily 30-minute sessions. The first half term is spent consolidating prior learning and plugging gaps where needed but the main focus of teaching is The Basics 4 Autumn term before moving onto The Higher Levels of Phonics in Spring term.

Phonics daily 30minute sessions continue in Year Two. The first half term is spent consolidating prior learning and plugging gaps where needed. Where children need to revisit The Higher Levels of Phonics, they will or, they will begin to use Spelling Shed to explore spelling patterns and rules in line with the National Curriculum.

Phonics Screener

All children in Year 1 will be screened using the National Assessment materials in June. If a child should not meet the standard, they will be re-tested the following year. This individual pupil result will be communicated to parents through the school report and is also submitted to the Local Authority for analysis on school performance.

Reading in Early Years

Every child uses communication, language and literacy in every part of the curriculum and is immersed in an environment that is rich in text and opportunities to communicate. A range of schemes are used to promote early reading and staff expertly support reading activities to ensure that all children have access to reading opportunities throughout the learning day.

Reading in Key Stage One

Throughout Key Stage One, the children at Broadoak are taught to speak with confidence and listen carefully to what others have to say. They should begin to read independently and with enthusiasm, while starting to use language to explore their own experiences and imaginary worlds. Children take part in both guided and individual reading sessions daily and have regular story times to develop a love of reading. Literacy skills are developed across the curriculum and the children are always encouraged to take books from their class libraries, which contain our Broadoak Top 50 Brilliant Books. We also encourage children to read their own favourites from home alongside their phonic decodable book which they take home each week. Provision is made for children who require extra support through intervention programmes and differentiated class teaching.

Reading in Key Stage Two

In Key Stage Two many children will continue to choose from the Big Cat reading scheme and have the opportunity to change this book throughout the week. Children are also encouraged to choose books and borrow them from the class libraries, which contain our Broadoak Top 50 Brilliant Books. Choosing a book that interests the child is an important part of children becoming independent readers and gives the opportunity for children to have their own opinions on books they enjoy reading, while great importance is placed on “reading for meaning”. This, in turn, has a direct impact upon enjoyment. Children are also encouraged to make recommendations to their class about their current read in order to share a love for reading.

Guided Reading sessions in Key Stage 2

All children are involved in a Guided Reading session at least once a week with the class teacher. During these sessions children are encouraged to use expression and intonation in their voices when reading aloud to a group. The guided sessions give groups the opportunity to have valuable discussions about the text they are reading whilst also checking children’s comprehension skills through answering different question types related to our WIPERS approach. High quality texts in guided reading are carefully selected by the class teacher and will relate to work children are covering across the curriculum.

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Curriculum Overview for Reading

Here you can find a broken down summary of how reading is taught from Year One- Six at Broadoak and the application of reading across the curriculum.

New curriculum overview Reading

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