At Langold Dyscarr Community School, we aspire for reading to be at the heart of our curriculum. Our aim is to teach children to become independent and reflective readers by learning how to word read and by developing fluency and comprehension skills, which they can apply across the curriculum, as well as developing a life-long love of reading for pleasure. Children have access to a wide variety of genres and reading material in our library and from our reading rich environments. Parents are actively encouraged to be involved in their child’s reading journey throughout their time here, and are welcomed to support and celebrate reading events we hold at school. At Langold Dyscarr Community School, we aspire for reading to be at the heart of our curriculum. Our aim is to teach children to become independent and reflective readers by learning how to word read and by developing fluency and comprehension skills, which they can apply across the curriculum, as well as developing a life-long love of reading for pleasure. Children have access to a wide variety of genres and reading material in our library and from our reading rich environments. Parents are actively encouraged to be involved in their child’s reading journey throughout their time here, and are welcomed to support and celebrate reading events we hold at school.

Intent

The reading curriculum at Langold Dyscarr Community School consists of two dimensions, the teaching of decoding words and the comprehension (both listening and reading).

As soon as children enter Nursery, a daily programme of phonological awareness is taught following the systematic synthetic phonics program, Little Wandle – Letters and Sounds.  Children are taught how to listen to and recognise different sounds and patterns in the words of our spoken language. It involves auditory discrimination, the ability to recognise sequences of sound and also holding and storing sound sequences in memory.

Children entering the main school at the start of their Reception year continue to follow the progression set out in Little Wandle – Letters and Sounds, Phase 2. (Full details of the phonics programme can be found on the phonics page on our website). EYFS (Early Years Foundation Stage) and Key Stage One children use a phonics based reading programme using phonically decodable books, which include fiction and non-fiction texts. All children in Key Stage One, (and some in Key Stage Two) engage in guided reading sessions that focus on the content domains of the National Curriculum. Key Stage Two use banded books to engage and motivate readers within a structured progression.

 The school recognises the importance of linguistic knowledge in developing good comprehension and children in the EYFS are taught new vocabulary using their ‘Buzz word’ programme. Throughout the rest of the primary school, children focus on tier two words through ‘Word of the day’ activities.

Langold Dyscarr Community School recognises that reading is a significant part of a pupil’s education and believes that it not only creates opportunities within everyday life but also opens doors for each pupil to access and thrive within our reading rich curriculum. It is indeed a subject that is fundamental to engaging in successful learning within other subject areas such as, researching information and facts for topics, reading math word problems, reading homework challenges, learning subject specific vocabulary and even learning lines and parts in school performances. Children’s fluency and comprehension skills develop through their experience of high-quality discussion with the teacher, as well as from reading and discussing a range of stories, poems and non-fiction, therefore all pupils participate in whole class daily reading activities focusing on specific reading objectives suitable for the year group.  All pupils are encouraged to read widely across fiction, non-fiction and poetry to develop their knowledge of themselves and the world in which they live, to establish an appreciation and love of reading, and to gain knowledge across the curriculum.  At Langold, this is enhanced by a varied curriculum, a well-stocked library, themed literacy based days, book clubs, peer tutoring, book fairs and community events.

Implementation

Alongside a daily phonics lesson, the EYFS and Key Stage One children join with the school in having daily, explicit teaching of reading comprehension and fluency which takes place during whole class reading lessons. From the very early reading sessions, children are explicitly taught key comprehension and fluency skills.  The school uses the mnemonic DERIC (D – Decode, E – Explain, R – Retrieve, I-Inference, C-Choice) that cover the key comprehension skills in line with the content domains outlined in the national curriculum. We also teach fluency by using consistent, successful strategies such as teacher modelling, echo reading, paired reading and performance reading. It is recognised that reading comprehension relies heavily on knowledge.  Our broad curriculum aides reading comprehension by ensuring that children gain the knowledge of the world in which they live and bring such knowledge to their reading.

We use a range of teaching strategies to ensure that we meet the needs of all our pupils as follows:

1. Whole Class (shared) Reading

Children hear, read, share and discuss a range of high-quality texts through our whole class Literacy teaching, in terms of poetry, fiction and non-fiction. Explicit teaching of reading comprehension takes place as part of the English teaching sequence, including some lessons, which focus on the teaching of fluency. The level of challenge increases throughout the year groups through the complexity of texts being read. The school has a long-term plan for each year group to support the range and challenge of texts selected.

    2. Choral Poetry Reading

All children learn either nursery rhymes (EYFS) or new poems (Year 1 – Year 6) taken from our Poetry Curriculum booklet. The children are taught the poems through whole class reading lessons and are encouraged to learn them in order to perform them in choral speaking (or poetry recital) assemblies for their families.

    3. Vocabulary Development

The vocabulary development of children is taught openly through various opportunities and is based on the ‘select, teach, activate and review’ process. The key principles are:

• Promote language through the environment, adult-child interactions, peer interactions, supported play, a range of texts, use of open questions, clear daily structures.
• Expose children to a rich and wide but appropriately demanding vocabulary.
• Children in the EYFS develop their vocabulary by being taught explicitly through the use of ‘Buzz words’. 
• Daily Rhyme Time opportunities within EYFS and Key Stage One
• From Years 1-6 vocabulary is developed through ‘Word of the day’ activities based on tier 2 words, which are then displayed in each classroom and children are encouraged to refer back to their vocabulary books independently when needed.
• In Years 1-6, ‘Buzz Words’ are also shared daily in writing lessons, which are displayed in each classroom and children are encouraged to embed them into their writing tasks during the week.

       4. Guided Reading:

In addition to the whole class teaching of reading, guided reading takes place for 20 minutes, two to three times per week for every child in Key Stage One and those in Year 3 who failed the phonic reading check in Year 1. Children are grouped based on needs and phonics knowledge and texts are selected carefully to ensure match of challenge to need.  Domains taught in the whole class sessions are reinforced in the guided group sessions.

      5. Reading Interventions:

Reading interventions focus on:

• Word reading (Little Wandle – Letters and Sounds) for children who are struggling to decode;

And / or

• Reading comprehension and fluency for those children who can decode but do not understand what they are reading.

All programmes are rigorous and systematic with the intention that these children catch up rapidly.

        6. Developing the Love of Reading

The following strategies are used to encourage reading and to develop the love of reading in our school:

• Story Time:  Story time takes place for at least 15 minutes every day from EYFS – Year 6.  High quality texts are selected by each teacher to either tie in with the topic being taught or to match children’s interest. The children can take ownership of this and vote for their preferred text.
• Sharing books: The children take home a book to share at home with parents/carers and are encouraged to read it more than once so that they become familiar with the story’s language and structure
• BOB books: There are Bob (Borrow One Book) suitcases on each Key Stage corridor to encourage children to take a book to enjoy then return it or even donate their own
• Daily Rhyme time: opportunities within EYFS and Key Stage One to listen and participate in poems and nursery rhymes.
• Reading areas in every classroom
• School library use with classes or in lunchtimes
• Children visit the local library every half term in EYFS and KS1 and termly in KS2
• The library and community involvement with book events
• Reading themed days/weeks including dress up days and world book day
• Parents and carers stay and read sessions
• Reading Buddies for KS1 children to read to KS2 children

Impact

Langold Dyscarr Community School Expectations of Attainment:

By the end of EYFS

Langold Dyscarr Community school expects children to be applying their phonic skills (phases 2-4) to decode unfamiliar printed words and to speedily recognise the tricky words in these phases when reading books matched to their phonic phase.

By the end of Year 2 in KS1

Langold Dyscarr Community School expects children to be able to quickly work out the pronunciation of unfamiliar printed words making a good approximation to the word’s pronunciation; the speedy recognition of familiar printed words and read books at an age appropriate interest level, accurately and at a reasonable speaking pace. In addition to this we aim to develop their understanding of texts so that they can develop their inference and prediction skills.

By the end of LKS2

Langold Dyscarr Community School expects children to have decoding skills that are secure and hence vocabulary is developing; be independent, fluent and enthusiastic readers who read widely and frequently; by developing their understanding and enjoyment of stories, poetry, plays and non-fiction, and learning to read silently; by developing their knowledge and skills in reading non-fiction about a wide range of subjects; be able to justify their views independently about what they have read.

By the end of Year 6 in KS2

Langold Dyscarr Community School expects our children to read sufficiently, fluently and effortlessly, with understanding at an age appropriate interest level in readiness for secondary school. Have a love of reading that feeds the imagination; read widely across a range of texts such as poetry, plays, fiction and non-fiction, developing knowledge of themselves and the world in which they live; have a developed vocabulary beyond that used in everyday speech; understand nuances in vocabulary choice; understand and use age-appropriate, academic vocabulary.

Assessment:

Children within FS2 and Y1 are regularly assessed using the Little Wandle – Letters and Sounds assessment materials (for more information, visit the phonics page on our website). Children who read beyond the phonetically matched books are assessed using ‘Benchmarks’ every half term as well as completing a Rising Stars half termly reading comprehension check. Children who are not exhibiting age related expected learning are assessed on a 1:1 basis to clarify specific areas of need. Regular reviews of the lowest attaining readers in a year group ensure the interventions for the children with the most need are constantly evaluated and adapted.

Statutory Assessment:

Key Stage One Reading Tests are compulsory for children in Year 2.

Key Stage Two Reading Tests are compulsory for children in Year 6.