Brookvale Primary School

Approaches to Reading

Teachers will promote and value reading as an enjoyable activity and a life skill. Pupils will have access to a wide range of reading opportunities that include:

• Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised daily phonics sessions - Early Years Foundation Stage and KS1 Keep Up Sessions and Y2-Y4 Rapid Catch Up 7+ interventions
• Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised Reading Practice Sessions - 3 times per week in Reception and Year 1 and Rapid Catch Up 7+
• Shared reading
• Whole-class reading (Year 2 - UKS2)
• Regular independent reading
• Home/school reading
• Hearing books read aloud on a daily basis
• Reading in other subjects including topic texts

Reading in the Early Years Foundation Stage at Brookvale Primary School will support children in developing an interest and enjoyment of reading. Initially, the children will be encouraged to develop positive reading behaviours, such as handling books carefully, holding books upright, turning pages and showing an interest in illustrations, understanding and joining in with stories, books, poetry and rhymes, recognising that print carries meaning, in both books and the environment. Through this, children should develop a competency to read a range of familiar words and simple sentences.

Phonic knowledge forms an integral part of a child’s learning basic reading and writing skills. Children in the Early Years Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1 receive phonic teaching based on the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised Scheme. (See Phonics and Early Reading Policy)

In EYFS and KS1, all teachers will be responsible for how hearing children read through 3 weekly Little Wandle reading practice sessions. In Year 2 and through to Y6, all teachers will be responsible for hearing children read at least three times a week during whole class reading sessions. All children have the opportunity to develop reading strategies and to discuss texts in detail during reading sessions. This gives children opportunities to develop key skills in reading: Prediction, Clarifying, Vocabulary, Inference, Retrieval, Questioning and Summarising.

Children will be encouraged to read widely and for pleasure. Classroom reading environments will be print-rich and stimulating with a wide range of books displayed creatively and imaginatively. Working walls will display rich and varied vocabulary; book corners wall displays, recommended reads as well as the “Focus Author” for that term. All classrooms will have a well-stocked book area with a range of fiction and non-fiction. Pupils will also have opportunities to read magazines, information leaflets and topic texts.

Reading at home is regarded as an important part of reading development. Parents are encouraged to hear their children read regularly at least three times weekly and respond to their child’s reading in a home-school reading diary. Children in Key Stage 1 who are accessing the Little Wandle Phonics scheme are allocated fully decodable eBooks matched to their phonics ability. In Key Stage 2, children will be encouraged to take home a stage book as well as a reading book from the class library. Staff are expected to monitor the frequency of home reading on a weekly basis.

Throughout school, Teaching Assistants support reading activities to ensure that children have more frequent opportunities to read with adults. Many exciting and rewarding activities are arranged in school to promote the pleasure and knowledge that can be gained from books, i.e. ‘Book Week’, Reading Challenge, Readathon, Get Caught Reading, Dress as your favourite book character, Reading clubs take place after school to promote the love of reading.

Children in the Foundation Stage classes take home a book regularly to be shared with parents. In KS1 children have the opportunity to choose a book from the class library and can change these books as often as they like. Each child has a reading folder and a home school reading record that teachers and parents can use to share information about a child’s reading. In Key Stage 2 children choose books (free readers) from their class library to take home along with reading scheme books if still needed, these are a selection of banded books from years three to five to support appropriate text choices. We encourage all readers to share a book at home with their grown-ups. We believe that this not only helps to develop inferential skills, but also supports a lifelong love of reading. Each day in school an adult will read to the whole class using a text that fits into their topic. All classes have several class reader books (whole class sets of books relating to topics) to allow all children to have a copy and read with the whole class. We recognise the value of adults (both in school and at home) reading aloud to children, in order to improve their grasp of story language, enthuse them with a love of books and inspire them as writers. 

Progression of Book Schemes

EYFS and KS1 –

Big Cat Phonics for Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised

Y2 – KS2 –

Rigby Star/ Oxford Reading Tree/ Project X – Purple – Dark Red

KS2 – After the above reading scheme has been completed -

Wolf Hill / Literacy World and Free Reader (Book chosen carefully by pupil and teacher)

Reading for pleasure throughout school -

EYFS - Y2 - Pie Corbett – Reading Spine – Reading for Pleasure Books

Books chosen from Pie Corbett list of reading for pleasure books 

Reading for Pleasure Books are labelled throughout each Key Stage

Reading for Pleaseure page on website includes lists of additional books suitable for each year group