English

Reading at RPA 

Intent 

Unlocking the joys of reading opens the world to children. It provides a mirror, allowing children to better understand themselves and all that they do; it also provides a window, where children can learn about the world through experiences they may not encounter. It is our intent at Redmarley Primary Academy that children are strong, joyful readers, who are able to learn through reading. 

  We aim to: 

• Instil children with a love of reading that lasts for their lifetime, share with them an enthusiasm for children’s literature and help children to recognise the value of reading as a life skill. 

• Ensure our children have sound phonic awareness and use a phonics first approach to reading. 

• Encourage children to become enthusiastic and reflective readers by introducing them to good quality books, from a variety of cultures and in a range of different styles and formats. 

• Develop our children’s understanding of a variety of text types including non-fiction, fiction, poetry and drama. 

• Develop children’s confidence, fluency, and independence when reading for different purposes. 

• Develop children’s abilities to reflect on and have an interest in what they have read and the language and punctuation choices made by the author. 

• Use drama and role-play, where appropriate, to immerse children in the text. 

• To read widely across the curriculum 

Reading is a complex, problem solving exercise is does not come instinctively but needs to be carefully taught, applied and nurtured. The Reading House Model (EEF), effectively captures this: 

Implementation

Early Reading and Phonics 

Early reading is children's first foray into books. This happens from birth, where parents begin to share stories as their child grows (from simple visuals to increasingly sophisticated stories as a child's understanding and comprehension develops). School then continues this journey. This involves teaching children to decode the alphabetic and phonetic code to be able to put sounds to letters, as well as continuing to build children's reading understanding and comprehension (through sharing and talking about stories, rhymes and songs). 

Use one systematic synthetic phonics programme (SSP) in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 

At Redmarley, we teach phonics using the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revisited Programme. We believe that for all our children to become fluent readers and writers, phonics must be taught through a systematic and structured phonics programme. In phonics lessons, we teach children that the letters of the alphabet represent a different sound, that these can be used in a variety of combinations and are put together to make words. The children learn to recognise all of the different sounds and combinations that they might see when they are reading or writing.  

We introduce children to the phonics programme in Nursery and the programme finishes by the Spring term of Year 2 or when an assessment has shown that children have a secure understanding of Phase 5 phonics.  

Foundations for Phonics in Nursery 

• We provide a balance of child-led and adult-led experiences for all children that meet the curriculum expectations for ‘Communication and language’ and ‘Literacy’. These include:  

• sharing high-quality stories and poems - Pre-School use the 10 key texts and follow up activities through the Little Wandle planning.  

• learning a range of nursery rhymes and action rhymes- Pre-School use the 20 nursery rhymes provided by the scheme throughout the year in their phonics sessions.  

• activities that develop focused listening and attention, including oral blending- Using Mr Foxes Box activities provided by the Little Wandle scheme.  

• attention to high-quality language – All staff model high quality language through explicit teaching as well as through playing alongside the children.  

• We ensure Nursery children are well prepared to begin learning grapheme-phoneme correspondences (GPCs) and blending in Reception. - Using Mr Foxes Box children are exposed to the grapheme cards and know the mnemonic that go alongside these.  

• Little Wandle Foundations is aligned to the non-statutory guidance on Development Matters and Birth to 5 Matters as well as the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) statutory framework. We use it as part of our wider provision for Communication and Language, and Literacy. It supports children to: 

• develop their phonological awareness, including rhyme, alliteration, syllables, initial and voice sounds, and oral blending- syllables modelled and used with our names, model sounding out and alliteration by text and poems.  

• love stories and rhymes and learn by heart a bank of familiar favourites- Book corner is inviting and children as a morning activity will often choose a book to read, Pre-school and Reception can also choose a reading for pleasure book from class library to take home and share.  

• increase their vocabulary and confidence to talk- through play, show and tell and participating during lessons.  

• improve their listening and ability to take part in back-and-forth conversations. 

• We believe that the priority in Nursery should be to build the foundations for phonics for all children. Research tells us that disadvantaged children start Nursery behind their more fortunate peers. By leaving formal phonics teaching to Reception, Foundations allows us to devote more time to working with children who need extra help to develop the skills and behaviours that underpin successful reading. 

Language and nursery rhymes in Reception 

• Research tells us that nursery rhymes can support children to develop their language, their awareness of sounds within words and even their later reading (Bryant et al. 1989).  

• We use the Little Wandle Rhyme time videos and accompanying phonological awareness planning to complement and reinforce our Phase 2 teaching.  

Daily phonics lessons in Reception and Year 1 

• We teach phonics for 30 minutes a day. In Reception, we build from 10-minute lessons, with additional daily oral blending games, to full-length lessons as quickly as possible. Each Friday, we review the week’s teaching to help children become fluent readers.  

• Children make a strong start in Reception: teaching begins in week 2 of the Autumn term. 

• We follow the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised expectations of progress: 

• Children in Reception are taught to read and spell words using Phase 2 and 3 GPCs, and words with adjacent consonants (Phase 4) with fluency and accuracy. 

• Children in Year 1 review Phases 3 and 4 and are taught to read and spell words using Phase 5 GPCs with fluency and accuracy.    

Daily Keep-up lessons ensure every child learns to read 

• Any child in Reception and Year 1 who needs additional practice has Daily Keep-up support and is taught by a fully trained adult.  

• Daily Keep-up lessons follow the Little Wandle progression and use the same procedures, resources and mantras, but in smaller steps with more repetition so that every child secures their learning.   

Daily phonics and spelling in Year 2 

• Year 2 begins by using assessment to ensure that children have completed the Little Wandle Year 1 progression. Any gaps in teaching are addressed through daily phonics lessons until the programme is completed. Corresponding summative assessments are carried out to ensure this content is secure. 

• Once all Year 1 content has been taught and assessed, we teach a five-week Phase 5 review. This ensures that children secure the trickier elements of Phase 5 and can apply this alphabetic knowledge in both reading and spelling. 

• We use the Phase 5 review assessment before teaching in Year 2 to identify any children who may need more support when teaching. We reassess after teaching the Phase 5 review. 

• Once the Phase 5 review is secure, we teach the Bridge to spelling before moving to the Spelling units.  

• Children with larger gaps in their phonic knowledge than their peers have daily phonics teaching and follow the Rapid Catch-up programme.   

Children in Year 2 to Year 6: Rapid Catch-up 

• If children do not pass the phonics assessment in Year2, we will look at providing tailored additional reading support. This may be through the Little Wandle rapid catch up or through a precision teaching approach.  

• These short, sharp sessions last 15 to 20 minutes daily and have been designed to ensure children quickly catch up to age-related expectations in reading.  

  If you are a parent and would like more information about how to support your child with phonics at home, please follow this link to find the Reception and Year 1 overview as well as videos of the sound pronunciations, letter formation sheets and other helpful resources. https://www.littlewandlelettersandsounds.org.uk/resources/for-parents/ 

Y2- Y6 

Once basic phonics and decoding is 'mastered', we support children to continue to develop as readers, so that they become increasingly fluent and prosodic as word readers and develop good comprehension alongside this. Phonics never 'goes away' and continues to be hugely relevant and an important strategy children and adults use to decode unfamiliar words they encounter,  

 Individual Reading 

Children have regular opportunities to practise their reading in class, whether this is aloud, part of guided reading or reading quietly to themselves or an adult. Children's reading books are matched to their ability though the Accelerated Reader scheme. As they move away from our phonics scheme book and become more independent readers, the selection of books for individuals is more nuanced.   

Reading at Home  

Reading with children at home is incredibly important for their overall development. It strengthens their language skills, expanding their vocabulary and enhancing their understanding of grammar and sentence structure. Regular reading sessions help children develop a love for books and learning, fostering curiosity and imagination. It also improves their listening skills, as they learn to follow along with stories and comprehend complex ideas. Our aim is for children to read regularly at home with a target of 5 times a week.  

Reading Comprehension 

'Reading is a complex, problem solving exercise. It does not come instinctively but needs to be carefully taught, applied and nurtured.’  (EEF) 

Good comprehension draws from linguistic knowledge (of vocabulary and grammar) and on knowledge of the world. Comprehension skills develop through pupils’ experience of high-quality discussion with the teacher, as well as from reading and discussing a range of stories, poems and non-fiction. At Redmarley, we have recently reviewed and are updating our reading teaching to a Quality Text Reading Approach (DERIC). This approach supports a deeper understanding of the whole curriculum, with texts carefully chosen and intentionally planned to enhance the learning at a cross curricular level. 

A Positive Reading Culture  

Children have opportunity to share stories and read alone and listen to stories which develops good reading for pleasure habits in class and at home. We have reading areas (mini libraries) which are accessible and engaging to children. We are always looking out for quality texts that appeal to children, so that they can become more 'hooked' and enthusiastic about reading and so the reading areas continue to engage. Children are heard read regularly at Redmarley, so that adults can gauge levels of fluency and to support further where necessary.  

Reading for Pleasure 

‘Reading for pleasure is the single most important indicator of a child’s success’ (OECD 2002). 

‘The will influences the skill and vice versa’ (OECD 2010).  

It is essential that children to read, as it is this that will drive them forward as readers. There are huge links between being a good reader and success in learning across the curriculum. It is our aim to encourage and nurture our developing readers by ensuring they have a great selection of exciting and stimulating texts to choose from. We highly value reading for pleasure. 

• We read aloud to children every day. We choose these books carefully as we want children to experience a wide range of books, including those that reflect the children and our local community as well as books that open windows into other worlds and cultures. 

• Every classroom has an inviting book corner that encourages a love for reading. We curate these books and talk about them to entice children to read a wide range of books.  

• In EYFS and KS1, children have access to the reading corner every day in their discovery time and the books are continually refreshed.  

For those children with additional needs or those find reading challenging: 

We regularly assess reading against the National Curriculum and use reading fluency and phonics assessments to support us in understanding where children have gaps in reading. We then use these to inform our next steps and what needs to be put in place to support children to keep up and make good progress. Some of the ways we do this are: 

• Hearing children read more often- giving extra practice  

• Precision teaching approaches to support sight reading and memory and retention 

• Adaptive teaching in class to support reading to access the curriculum  

 Impact 

 In order for our reading curriculum to have had an impact, we will see children who:  

• Enjoy reading and are enthusiastic and excited about books  

• Are able to read with a good word automaticity (using decoding and sight reading) for their age by the end of KS1, so that they are ready to access the curriculum at KS2.  

• Leave us in KS2 with age-appropriate reading fluency and comprehension, ready for their next stage of education.  

• Have strong fluency; they are able to read with accuracy, speed, expression and with good understanding. 

• Have good comprehension through vocabulary, retrieval, inference, choice and connectivity. 

• Children are able to articulate and share what they have learned from reading, demonstrating that they have gained knowledge and insight from a variety of texts.