Our Reading Leader is Mrs Davies.
At Towngate Primary Academy, reading is at the core of our curriculum. Every day, children are presented with many opportunities to read, be read to and explore the wonder of books.
At Towngate Primary, we follow the National Curriculum, Early Years Framework and Reading Framework to ensure our children become fluent readers by the time they leave primary school. We use Read, Write, Inc. to teach phonics to support pupils’ word reading and teach language comprehension through our book-led English curriculum and guided reading lessons daily.
In order to support our pupils’ early reading, all children accessing phonics teaching are given a Read, Write, Inc. (RWI) Book Bag Book which is specifically matched to their reading / phonic attainment to read both in school and practice at home. This builds pupils’ fluency and accuracy in decoding.
After pupils complete the RWI phonics programme, they choose age-appropriate books, which have been measured using ‘Lexile’ measure to ensure that children access books matched to their reading ability from the rich array we have on offer in school.
Children in Year 2 through to Year 6 complete whole class reading sessions four times per week: pupils have their own copy of an age-appropriate book to develop fluency and accuracy in reading initially, before developing prosody, intonation and expression for reading. Children then develop their reading comprehension through the careful modelling and questioning led by adults in the classroom.
Reading is a high priority in our book-led English curriculum, where teachers plan weekly comprehension lessons to match the reading domains for each year group. Through teachers choice of high quality texts, we intend to develop a love of reading and allow children to recognise the pleasure they can get from reading, develop pupils’ imagination and perseverance to read at length for enjoyment.
Reading is woven into all aspects of the curriculum: subject leaders have a range of ‘recommended reads’ available in each class based on subjects and specific content, reading assemblies take place, weekly reading for pleasure sessions and daily ‘read aloud’ sessions occur. With this, we aim to provide children with a well-rounded understanding that reading provides opportunities to discover new knowledge, revisit prior knowledge and understand more about what they learn across all subject matters.
Whole Class Reading
Whole class reading lessons take place from Year 2 to Year 6 four times per week. A book is chosen, based on curriculum content and based on cohort interests at an age-appropriate level for every year group. Each session of reading begins with introduction of new vocabulary with corresponding definitions: this vocabulary comes directly from the text children will prepare to read, to allow for depth of understanding to be achieved. Sessions continue with a recap and review of previous reading, focused around revisiting key themes, events, characters and discussions about the author’s intentions. Adults then model their reading aloud to the children, demonstrating high levels of fluency, accuracy and intonation, before children then ‘jump in’, prompting pupils to carefully follow the text as it is being read. Once modelled, pupils read in pairs, with one partner reading aloud and one partner following the text. Adults are listening for accuracy and fluency of the written word during this time.
As reading progresses through the course of the week, children are exposed to rapid retrieval questions which are built on through comprehension questions; children are supported through ‘thinking aloud’ approaches from adults whereby situation modelling and comprehension monitoring is delivered, supporting children to replicate these key skills to understand the text.
Reading in the curriculum
As part of the English curriculum in place, teachers teach a whole class comprehension lesson based upon the class novel across all classes within every unit of work. It is here that pupils practise and apply key reading skills taught within guided reading sessions and develop a love for books and authors, ready to use these as a basis for their own compositions in writing.
All subject leaders across the academy have selected ‘recommended reads’ which are used in the classroom to promote children’s curiosity to read often and widely across the curriculum. These are kept in dedicated book boxes alongside a range of texts within reading areas.
Reading for pleasure and reading culture
Every Wednesday, children participate in Reading For Pleasure sessions. Every class has a book basket which is full of carefully chosen texts picked to immerse and expose the children in an array of texts, authors and genres. As part of reading for pleasure, the following reading stations are set up for the children to enjoy:
– Reading aloud: an adult models reading for enjoyment to the children in the dedicated reading corner
– Non-Fiction
– Fiction
– Magazines/Newspapers
– Poetry
At the end of every day, pupils stop lessons at 3pm and are read to by an adult. Adults read a high quality pre-planned novel to the children every day, exposing children to language, content and texts they may otherwise refrain from reading.
Reading corners have been created across all classes, with a consistency in approach. Book boxes are rotated regularly to refresh the offer of texts to the children, with books arranged into genres and authors: this allows children to develop their own repertoire and opinions of preferred books and texts to enjoy.
Reading is at the core of our curriculum and children are provided the opportunities to become life-long readers and value the importance of reading in their every day lives.
Through the innate approach to reading taken at Towngate Primary, children read wide and often which support them in their understanding of concepts across the curriculum. The vast majority of children enter Key Stage Two as an independent reader, ready to be exposed to a rich menu of books on offer. The environment is adorned with high quality texts in classrooms, on corridors and in the academy Wonderland themed library to raise excitement and prevalence of reading into all our children.
Pupil voice and monitoring by the curriculum leader measures children’s enjoyment and pleasure for reading. As a result of the reading provision on place, children have a developed ability to use their phonic knowledge at their stage of development to decode and blend successfully, leading to fluency and accuracy in their reading.
Through the approach taken, children are developing their comprehension skills by revisiting skills through lessons, which enables them to know more, remember more and pupils achieve well in reading in summative and National statutory assessments.
