Reading 

Reading is promoted as an enjoyable activity and a life skill throughout Davyhulme Primary School. We instil a love of reading in our pupils through well-taught, engaging lessons, author visits, allocated reading time and two well-stocked libraries.

Our aims are to enable children to:

• develop positive attitudes towards reading, so that it is a pleasurable and meaningful activity;
• use reading skills as an integral part of learning across the curriculum;
• read and respond to a variety of texts whilst gaining increased levels of fluency, accuracy, independence and understanding;
• develop different strategies for approaching reading and be able to orchestrate the full range of strategies.

In order for children to access the rich range of literature available, the children are taught to read by:

• listening to texts that are read to them on a regular basis in school. Parents are also encouraged to read to their children at home;
• identifying letters and words in the environment;
• learning to recognise digraphs both in isolation and in real and ‘psuedo’ words;
• reading books with adults both at school and at home;
• answering comprehension questions about a text they have listened to, or read themselves;
• identifying new vocabulary and using dictionaries to help them discover its meaning;
• high quality discussion about books during ‘Book Talk’ guided reading sessions;
• practising and extending reading across the curriculum.

Children have a wealth of reading opportunities throughout the course of the school day, in which to develop and extend their skills, confidence and interest. These include:

• guided reading – taught through ‘Book Talk’ (see attached policy);
• regular independent reading;
• listening to books read aloud on a daily basis – we are committed to reading every day to pupils for a minimum of 10 minutes;
• pupils selecting their own choice of texts;
• regular reading of shared texts during English lessons;
• reading in other subjects across the curriculum;
• daily or regular reading with an adult, dependent on the assessed need for pupils who are working below the expected standard.

Reading Scheme

In Reception and Key Stage 1, children are allocated reading books which reflect their phonic knowledge. These books are allocated via the Oxford Owl website as ebooks. Upon completion of Read Write Inc phonics/ entry to year 3, pupils select appropriate texts under the guidance of the teacher or Teaching Assistant from the Oxford Reading Scheme, for independent and home/school reading. As pupils progress through the school, they are given more responsibility for making their own reading choices from the excellent resources we have in school.

Pupils’ reading age is assessed on a termly basis using the Salford Reading Test to constantly monitor pupils’ progress and to ensure that pupils continue to be on the appropriate book band level for their reading ability. Teachers and teaching assistants monitor independent reading and discuss progress with individual pupils on a regular basis.

Pupils’ reading age is assessed on a termly basis using the Salford Reading Test to constantly monitor pupils’ progress and to ensure that pupils continue to be on the appropriate book band level for their reading ability. Teachers and teaching assistants monitor independent reading and discuss progress with individual pupils on a regular basis. Where pupils are working below age-appropriate objectives, they will be identified for intervention programmes such as the Boosting Reading at Primary intervention programme (Br@P).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Promoting Reading

Reading is an important part of the Curriculum and helps children access learning in all subjects. Children who read for pleasure gain a richer vocabulary, more knowledge, critical thinking skills and become independent learners. As well as this, research also suggests that reading helps to improve the mental well-being of children. Put simply, children who read a lot tend to be happier! It has also been proven that children who are fluent readers tend to do better in their adult lives. It is therefore vital that children find learning to read and write a rewarding and successful experience. Reading is promoted as an enjoyable and enriching experience to both children and parents via a wide range of activities:

• Valuing home reading – we place great importance on encouraging parents to listen to their children read. Ideally, we would like parents to read with their child every day for at least 10 minutes, however, to ensure that this is manageable, we ask that parents listen to their child read at least 3 times per week. After much discussion and consultation, we have also reduced the amount of homework that we give in Key Stage 2 in order to place more focus and emphasis on reading. Reading at home is valued by all staff and is regularly monitored by teachers in pupils’ planners. To incentivise home reading, we use a book mark reward scheme. Stickers are awarded on a weekly basis to those pupils who have read at least 3 times per week at home and certificates and prizes are awarded during assembly for pupils who successfully complete bookmarks.  Our reading schemes are regularly reviewed and updated; a brand new reading scheme was purchased for Key Stage 2 in 2018 (Oxford Reading Scheme). Please see attached letters sent to parents about our home reading scheme.
• Cassie: our reading dog – Cassie visits our school every Friday afternoon during our Fabulous Friday. Children are selected each week to go and read to Cassie in Mr McDowell’s office. This is offered as a reward to those pupils who have read regularly at home, or as a means to boost confidence and raise self-esteem of some of our pupils who may be struggling with their reading.
• Author visits – we are fortunate to have close links with our local bookshop, Urmston Bookshop. As a result, we regularly welcome visits from authors who talk to our children about their books and reading in general. This really helps to promote the importance of reading and the pleasure that can be gained from reading.
• World Book Day – we are committed to supporting World Book Day every year and arrange a wide range of activities for our pupils to celebrate reading. This is heavily promoted around our school in many of our vibrant displays.
• Libraries – we are fortunate to have two well-stocked libraries in both Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 which are run by our school librarian. All pupils enjoy a weekly library visit and are encouraged to select a library book to take home, as well as their home reading book.
• Daily Reading Pledge – we ensure that all pupils are read to everyday by our teaching staff. This time is highly valued and protected.
• Demonstration Reading – pupils are actively taught how to think like a reader during demonstration reading which involves the teacher ‘thinking out loud’ his/her thoughts as a reader when reading a sentence. The idea is for the teacher to wring out as much meaning as possible from a sentence when reading aloud.
• Reading Assemblies – the importance of reading is heavily promoted during our assemblies. Pupils in Key Stage 2 are encouraged to complete book reviews when they have finished a book and prizes of book vouchers are awarded on a half-termly basis to the best review.
• High Quality Texts – we use high quality texts to deliver our English curriculum, for example Skellig by David Almond in Year 6 and Kensuke’s Kingdom by Michael Morpurgo in Year 5. We subscribe to the excellent website ‘The Power of Reading’ which is run by the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education. We provide children with rich reading experiences within the English lessons and encourage them to appreciate the author’s use of language and writing techniques in order to develop their own writing skills
• Homework – we have recently reviewed our homework policy in order to place greater emphasis on the importance of reading at home with an adult. Pupils are encouraged to complete book reviews and reading journal tasks.
• Reading Buddies – pupils in the infants enjoy sharing a book with an older pupil in Key Stage 2. This is enjoyed by all children across the school.
• Book Clubs – as part of our commitment to extra-curricular activities, we have a number of book clubs running that are available to our pupils. This is an opportunity to share a high quality text and to talk about it with their peers.
• Reading Corners - every classroom has a reading corner or ‘book nook’ to promote and value the importance of reading.
• Book Bus/Book Fairs – we regularly welcome the Scholastic’s Book Bus to school, so that parents and children can buy books which in turn raises funds for our school to help restock class and the school libraries. The P.T.A. also run book fairs for the children, offering them the opportunity to purchase great books at a much reduced price.
• Book Swaps – these are held annually to provide children with the opportunity to exchange books with their peers.