Ludlow Junior School Reading Policy September 2012
Aims
To enable children to:
•
Enjoy reading and be keen to read for pleasure as well as for work
•
make good progress in reading and to identify any children who are not doing this and put
in interventions to support them
•
develop a good standard of fluency, accuracy, independence and understanding as they
progress throughout the school, gaining increased confidence and independence
•
To have sufficient skills to be able to use reading as part of learning throughout the
curriculum
Entitlement
Children have a dedicated reading session every day. In this session they have a range of activities
including guided, shared and independent reading. In the early stages of reading children are
taught phonic strategies, as they gain confidence there is a greater focus on fluency and pace, once
this is achieved there is increased focus on comprehension skills. All of these elements are taught,
as appropriate, at each stage.
Support
Any child who is identified as working below age related expectations has a targeted programme of
support. This usually includes a small group intervention four times a week working on specific
needs, such as phonics or comprehension.
Children who are not making expected progress also receive targeted interventions. An example of
a recent intervention was a reading group aimed at children who should achieve level 5 by at the
end of Key Stage 2, but were not making challenging choices in their independent reading. These
children all went on to reach their target in the end of Key stage assessments.
Home School Reading
As a school we recognise that while it is teachers responsibility to teach reading, they need the need
support from home to help children practice this skill. All children are expected to read at home
four times a week and this should be recorded in the home/school reading diary. This is encouraged
through parent meetings, parent partnership meetings, Assemblies, Diary checks, Reading
Champions and other events. Classes have individual incentive such as reader of the week , merits
for diary checks and other celebrations. The headteacher also monitors reading Diaries and asks
praises children who read regularly. We recognise that some for some children reading at home is
very difficult, due to family circumstances and while trying not to stigmatise them, we do endeavour
to arrange additional opportunities for them to read.
Reading Schemes
Children who are at the early stages of reading follow are put on book banded books. These books
are from a variety of reading schemes but predominantly the Oxford Reading Scheme. We feel that
this is better than following one scheme exclusively, as it offers children a wider range of choice and
experience. The children progress through the different colours of book bands, until they are
proficient enough to become independent readers. There is a section of books for emerging
readers, which offers support for children when they first become free readers. Class teachers
monitor independent reading and help children make appropriate choices. In addition to this the
librarian has a wealth of knowledge about children’s books and is available at lunchtimes and after
school, to help children and parents with making good choices. As a school we feel it is important
that children learn to make appropriate choices about what to read and have the independence to
do this as this is a skill they will need in Secondary School and beyond.
The School Library
The school has an excellent Library, which contains a wide selection of fiction and non-fiction texts,
the children were involved in choosing books for the library and are encouraged to request or
recommend new books for purchase. In addition there are four computers which are available to
children at lunchtimes and after school. The library is open to children every lunchtime and four
afternoons after school, when parents are encourages to choose books with their children.
The range of Reading Material
We feel that it is important that children realise, from an early age, that reading is part of everyday
life, so we encourage them to read a wide variety of reading material. This may include recipes,
instructions for games, leaflets about places visited, comics, ICT texts etc.