Reading

At the start

From the very beginning in Reception, the children begin to learn to decode with the beginning levels of the Twinkl phonics scheme. The children learn the main sounds heard in the English Language and how they can be represented, as well as learning ‘tricky’ or common exception words for Levels 2, 3 and 4. Using this knowledge, they learn to blend to read words, captions and sentences. This continues in year 1 and 2 with phonemes from levels 5 and 6. Across KS1, children take home a well matched phonics books from Twinkl Rhino Readers that they are able to read at 95% accuracy. Adults read these books 1:1 with the children in Reception and Year 1 before children progress to guided group reading sessions after Christmas in year 1 and eventually, whole class reading in Year 2. All children have the opportunity to listen to a high quality story at the end of each day read by the teacher as a model of fluent reading.

The second phase

In Key Stage 2, the children take part in whole class reading sessions where the varying strategies of good readers are modelled and taught. Adults use a range of carefully selected texts which cover a range of genres and sessions are largely discussion and questioning based. For those children, who struggle to decode and still require phonics input, there are 1:1 phonics interventions taught which are targeted at their specific gaps in knowledge. In each class from year 2 – 6, children take part in a daily 5 minute fluency session to improve their speed, accuracy and prosody. Where necessary, short burst interventions also take place to address individuals whose fluency is impeding their ability to comprehend what they have read. Children continue to take books home which are appropriately matched to their level of reading. Each class has an Everyone Reads in Class (ERIC) session for children to read independently and there is a story time at the end of each day.

The Olveston Reading Curriculum has three over-arching aims:

1. To foster a lifelong love of reading in children and children that can discuss the books they have read, make recommendations to their peers and be critical readers.
2. Children will be able to accurately decode using their knowledge of phonics and read at an appropriate pace for their age with at least 95% accuracy.
3. Children will develop the strategies of a good reader to be able to comprehend what they have read at both a surface and at a deeper level.

What does this look like in the long term? 

• Children will know and understand how to accurately use their phonics knowledge to blend words.
• Children will recognise tricky words by sight to read these at a glance.
• Children will recognise an increasing number of words by sight and become less reliant on using phonics so they can read with increasing fluency.
• In each year group, children will read independently with at least 95% accuracy and an appropriate words per minute for their age.
• Children will know and understand how to discuss the direct meaning of texts by drawing on their background knowledge and also how to retrieve, summarise and sequence information.
• Children will know and understand how to consider the deeper meaning of texts considering how to use strategies linked to theory of mind, verbal reasoning, prediction and language structures.