Our approach to the teaching of reading
The Power of Reading has been introduced to the school and this is having a positive impact
on reading and writing across the school. Good quality texts are read with the children.
Reading is taught through a variety of approaches including the daily teaching of synthetic
phonics. Classes undertake small group guided reading sessions and quality texts are
shared with the children. Individual reading takes place and parents and carers are
encouraged to support pupils at home. Class reading, at the end of the day, takes place and
again good quality texts are used.
Children have access to attractive and well cared for books in their own classes, with
teachers having developed their reading areas to encourage pupils to develop a love of
reading. Pupils take ownership of choosing their own reading book to share and read with
their parents at home, from their book banded shelf. Through choosing their own home
reading books the children develop an interest in reading and are allowed to select books
that they are personally interested in, and therefore keen to read. However on occasions
school staff will guide some children to suitable books and discuss the benefits of choosing
particular books. Each book band has and varied mix of both reading scheme and real
picture books, including fiction, non-fiction and poetry texts, which are of similar reading
difficulty.
In Key Stage 1 children experience a wide range of books to broaden their vocabulary and
knowledge of different types of texts; this allows children to receive a balanced approach to
learning to read so teachers are able to draw on a wide range reading materials to meet the
needs of individuals. The current reading scheme used is the Oxford Reading Tree; this has
a range of genres and texts within the scheme.
During guided reading sessions, children are taught strategies for word recognition. They
are encouraged to develop skills using the context, the pictures, their phonic knowledge
and their ability to segment and blend words. A wide selection of texts by a variety of
authors is used during guided reading sessions.
Children are questioned to broaden and deepen their understanding of the text through
group discussions. As a child requires more complex strategies they are given time and
support to go beyond the decoding of the text and consider a wide range of more complex
aspects of the text. The look closely at character and plot development; the structure of the
text; the meaning and quality of the vocabulary used; the use of figurative language and
other authorial techniques; they also look at how the illustrator is portraying the text. They
will learn how to evaluate text and how to reference relevant passages of text to support
and justify their opinions.
Reading remains a really important element of the homework we set throughout a child’s
time at St. Paul’s Church of England Primary School. In Key Stage 2 our children keep a
reading journal and complete a range of short tasks to demonstrate their understanding of
the book read and their reflections on it. Some children benefit from reading individually to
an adult more often than others or having extra support for a period of time to accelerate
their progress. Extra support is provided when a need is identified by the class teacher.
Hearing children read frequently is so important. If parents and carers can spend time
enjoying a book with their children; not simply decoding words but discussing the text,
checking their child’s understanding, spotting the really good descriptive words or how the
author brings the characters to life and engages the reader, it will enhance their child’s
development and passion for reading and improve their own writing too.
Just by parents and carers giving their child a shopping list whilst they are out will support
their reading development in the real world, as well as giving them real life experiences.
Some children learn to read through a topic they are interested in; some children’s
magazines can support children to develop an interest in reading.