Reading

Children at Brocklewood will read fluently with good understanding. They will read widely and often, both for pleasure and for information. They will read to promote critical thinking and to look at a variety of perspectives on global themes. Reading will hopefully stimulate the imagination beyond what is familiar to them and allow for exploration of wider issues giving an awareness of how the world works. Through reading widely children will gain a wide and ambitious vocabulary which they can then transfer into their writing. Children will gain the ability to read words through the systematic teaching of phonics which starts in the Foundation Stage. They will then develop further comprehension skills through whole class shared reading lessons using quality fiction texts, supported by information texts to give background knowledge. Children will experience texts being read aloud to them and they will be able to discuss texts they have heard and authors they have read.

Every child at Brocklewood will have:

• A daily lesson dedicated to the teaching of reading through strategies such as inference, summarising, vocabulary building and retrieve and record.
• Daily scaffolded book talk, modelling the application of reading strategies.
• A close up of new vocabulary
• Access to an inviting, purposeful book corner stocked with exciting reads
• Regular opportunities to read 1:1 with a teacher, who will give live feedback on progress including next steps.
• Weekly opportunities to capture ideas in a written comprehension task.
• Opportunities to read a wide range of texts within wider curriculum lessons
• Opportunities each week to read for pleasure.

• If needed, some children receive regular phonics If needed, some children receive regular phonics interventions to keep up not catch up.
• A book to read that is matched to their ability.
• Story time every day, where the teacher shares a book of the classes choice!
• Regular visits to the school library

Reading for pleasure

Children at Brocklewood will have plenty of opportunity to read for pleasure, including:

• Participation in World Book Week dress up and enrichment events
• Author/ storyteller visits
• Visits to local library
• Regular visits to school library

Phonics

How we teach early reading

• Reading is taught in tandem with phonics. After a phonics input children across Reception, Year 1 & Year 2 apply their phonics knowledge by using a fully matched decodable book.

• Children have extra support where appropriate with a trained adult and reading volunteers. The focus is on ‘keep up not catch up’.

• The focus is on reading strategies of fluency, decoding and blending.

• Books selected by the teacher show cumulative progress according to the sounds the child has been taught that half term.

• Books are closely matched to a child's ability. Children read books which contain sounds they have learnt so they can practise the skills of segmenting and blending We use the Big Cat Little Wandle Letters and Sounds books, which are aligned to the government validated Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Synthetic Systematic Phonics Programme.

• In reception, reading sessions start almost immediately. For children who are not decoding, blending remains a focus.

• In Year 1 when children reach the end of the reading scheme they are assessed for fluency in order to progress from the decodable system.

• Children take home books matched to their ability. Children also are able to self - select reading for pleasure books to share with their family and can speak well about which books they choose and why.

How we teach phonics

• In the Nursery, children follow the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised ‘Foundations for Phonics’ guidance. The focus is on daily oral blending and language development through high quality stories and rhymes.

• In Reception and Y1, children follow the progression within Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised programme. Phonics is taught for 25 min every day.

• By the end of Reception, children will have been taught up to the end of Phase 3. If they are ready, children may start Phase 4.

• By the end of Year 1, children will have been taught up to the end of Phase 5.

• In Y2, phonic lessons are taught daily to children following the model of Little Wandle but plugging specific gaps identified through assessment.

• In Y1-Y4 there are planned catch-up sessions following a set model to address specific gaps.

• All staff including support staff have regular CPD and are confident to deliver a quality first phonics session.

How we assess phonic knowledge

• In Reception and Year 1, there are whole review weeks (pre-planned and bespoke review weeks to address gaps identified by the class teacher’s ongoing formative assessment).

• Children identified in Reception and Y1 as in danger of falling behind are immediately identified and ‘keep up’ sessions are put in place – sessions follow the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised programme.

• In Reception and Year 1, the children are assessed at the end of every half term using the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised assessment tracker. Children in Year 1 will also undertake practice phonic screening check.

• The children in Y1 sit the Phonics Screening Check in the summer term.

• Children who do not pass the Phonics Screening Check in Y1, will re-sit this in Y2.

• Children who are currently in KS2 who didn’t leave KS1 at the expected level are monitored by phonics knowledge and reading progress termly.

• Children who are in Y1-Y4 and need ‘catch up’ sessions are assessed through the teacher's ongoing formative assessment as well as half termly summative assessments.