Reading

Purpose of study

Reading is an essential element in the broad and balanced curriculum we aim to provide at Colerne Church of England Primary School. Our Reading curriculum values:

• familiarising children – with characters, setting, key themes, dilemmas, resolutions
• encouragement of children to make links with other books and areas of the curriculum
• embedding learning and deepening reading skills
• building up children’s reading stamina

The aims of the Reading curriculum are:

• To develop an understanding of the world
• To deepen empathy for others
• To broaden communication skills
• To embed a love of reading
• To enhance writing skills

INTENT

EYFS and KS1 Children have daily ‘Unlocking Letters and Sounds’ phonics sessions. Once secure, Year 2 children move onto the ‘Spelling Shed’ scheme and progress through the spelling patterns towards the end of KS1 and throughout KS2.

In EYFS, children first experience reading by verbally telling stories through picture books. Once children have begun to learn the grapheme-phoneme correspondences in their phonics sessions, they then access phased phonic books so they can apply their knowledge and skills. Books progress as their competence and skill increases. By the end of the year; EYFS children are expected to be fluently blending and segmenting Phase 4 decodable books and Year 1 children are expected to be fluently reading books linked to Phase 5c Mastery. In Year 2, children who have passed their phonics screener then move to colour-banded books. To compliment children’s individual decodable readers, children also have weekly opportunities to select a ‘Read to me’ book from the recommended reads in our KS1 Reading Spine. This is to develop reading for pleasure and encourages parents to share a wider range of books with their child.

In KS2, individual reading books are selected to match the reading level of the children.  Children move across from colour-banded books to the matched number levels of the PM reading scheme, providing a wider range of genres, then to the final KS2 colour bands before moving on to free reading. Free readers select books from our KS2 Reading Spine, which consists of over 50 recommended reads for each year group.  All scheme readers also choose an additional book from their year group Reading Spine, which continues to develop reading for pleasure and offers parents the opportunity to read a wide range of texts with and to their child. 

Across the school, children are exposed to a broad and balanced Reading Curriculum, which underpins the writing outcomes for each year group. The 2-year rolling programme of high-quality texts enables the children to continually develop their specific reading skills in a whole class setting using VIPERS (see Implementation below).

IMPLEMENTATION

KS1 children learn through synthetic phonics, the teaching of reading in which phonemes (sounds) associated with particular graphemes (letters) are pronounced in isolation and blended together (synthesised). This promotes word recognition and builds on children’s reading fluency. Children have daily sessions progressing through the phases within the Letters and Sound handbook. In Foundation Stage children cover Phase 2-4, Year 1 covers Phase 4-5 and Year 2 covers Phase 5a spelling recap-5c mastery until Christmas then children move onto the Spelling Shed scheme (see writing information for more detail).

VIPERS (based on our chosen texts) are used to explore a variety of genres in class shared reading lessons. This allows for in-depth study of texts, supporting children to expand their vocabulary and experience a broad range of texts that they may be unable to fully access independently.

• Vocabulary: This offers children the opportunity to explore the language used to ensure that their vocabulary and cultural capital is extended, enabling them to explain the meaning of words within the text.
• Infer:  This stage is only attempted after the class have shared the text and explored the vocabulary to ensure that they have sufficient understanding to analyse the text in greater depth and then use the information to justify their answers.
• Predict: Through discussion as a class or in smaller groups, children explore their ideas to predict what may happen using information stated or implied in the text.
• Explain: Children will practice the skills of identifying and explaining how information/narrative content is related and contributes to the meaning as a whole, identifying/explaining how meaning is enhanced through choice of words and phrases as well as making comparisons within the text.
• Retrieve: Children are taught to retrieve and record key information/details from a variety of texts.
• Sequence/Summarise: As the final part of the process, KS1 children will sequence the events of a text and KS2 children will learn the skills required to summarise main ideas from one or more paragraphs.

This process allows a structured approach to ensure that children gain confidence and familiarity with a text to enable them to examine a wide variety of texts in detail. Texts are thematically linked to work being completed across many different areas of the curriculum, showing that the importance of reading extends far beyond the English curriculum. In addition, comprehensions are used to allow pupils to explore texts with more emphasis on honing children’s skills in a particular aspect such as retrieval or inference. Every child in KS1 has two weekly opportunities to read in a small group with the teacher. In KS2, children take part in Whole Class Reading where they practise the VIPERS skills as well as having the opportunity to read aloud. In upper KS2, children also practise reading skills in reciprocal reading groups. As a school with high mobility, children are assessed on entry regardless of what point in the year they arrive.

IMPACT

In KS1 Phonics assessments are carried out termly and data is analysed and used to tailor interventions ensuring children keep up with their peers. Data is closely monitored to ensure that all children make progress through the ‘Unlocking Letters and Sounds’ scheme. 
2022

• Phonics Screener results 85% of Year 1s passed and 94% of Year 2s passed.

PIRA assessments are carried out three times a year from Year 2 - Year 6. In Year 1, children who are on track to pass their phonics screener will have their first opportunity at a reading comprehension assessment by completing the Spring and Summer PiRAs. Data is used to inform teachers and subject leaders of strengths and areas for development across the reading strands. Subject leaders can then analyse cohorts and provide constructive feedback to teachers about skills that may need greater emphasis during VIPERS and comprehension sessions.

Subject Leaders’ Learning Walks clearly demonstrated the progression of VIPERS skills across the school. Children were enthusiastic and confident to discuss text genres, make links between books, themes and authors and passionately discuss the selected texts and their broadened reading diet.

The Reading Curriculum Year A 2021-22 is complete and we are now implementing our Year B 2022-23 curriculum.

2022

• EYFS Reading results 81% achieved GLD
• KS1 84% achieved ARE of which 19% achieved GDS
• KS2 86% achieved ARE of which 43% achieved GDS, with a progress score of +3.5

Writing

Purpose of study

Writing is fundamental to the implementation of the broad and balanced curriculum we provide at Colerne Church of England Primary School. Our Writing curriculum values:

• familiarising children with a wide range of writing genres
• encouragement of children to make links between writing genres and across different areas of the curriculum
• embedding learning and deepening writing skills
• building up children’s writing stamina

The aims of the Writing curriculum are:

• To enable all children to write clearly, accurately and coherently
• To encourage all children to write for a range of content, purposes and audiences
• To use VIPERS skills and knowledge in their writing
• To develop all children’s skills in planning, revising and evaluating their writing
• To develop all children’s spelling, punctuation and grammar skills

INTENT

The National Curriculum objectives for writing are taught through our thematically linked Reading Curriculum. In EYFS and KS1, the majority of children’s writing outcomes are based on their core texts and link texts are used for short burst writing or to enhance VIPERS skills. In KS2, the core text is the whole class reader and where children explore VIPERS skills and the link texts provide writing outcomes. SPaG objectives are included within the writing outcomes as appropriate to the text type; any remaining objectives for each year group are taught discretely.

IMPLEMENTATION

Phonics and Spelling

EYFS and KS1 Children have daily phonics sessions following the ‘Unlocking Letters and Sounds’ programme. Children learn through synthetic phonics, the teaching of writing in which particular graphemes (letters) and their associated phonemes (sounds) are decoded through segmentation to spell words. Children have daily sessions progressing through the phases within the ‘Unlocking Letters and Sounds’ progression document. In Foundation Stage children cover Phase 2-4, Year 1 covers Phase 4-5 and Year 2 covers Phase 5a spelling recap-5c mastery. Year 2 children follow ‘Unlocking Letters and Sounds’ until Christmas as guidance dictates then they move onto Spelling Shed.

The ‘Spelling Shed’ programme supports the teaching of spelling, embracing knowledge of spelling conventions, etymology, morphology, phonics and definitions of words. The programme is split into weekly spelling patterns, which are organised by year group; it also includes sessions on the common exception words and challenging spellings. The ‘Spelling Shed’ scheme progresses through the spelling patterns set out in the National Curriculum.

Year 2 and KS2 children have weekly spelling tests. Specific spelling interventions such as Precision Spelling are used to practice and embed personal spelling lists.

Handwriting

Progression in teaching handwriting follows the statutory guidance as set out in the National Curriculum.

Vocabulary, Grammar and Punctuation

In KS1 and KS2, Grammar and Punctuation sessions are incorporated within the writing curriculum outcomes as appropriate to the text type to support the compositional aspects of cohesive writing. Any remaining objectives for each year group are taught discretely.

Writing

The high quality texts which form our Reading Curriculum are used to engage all children in practising and developing their transcription and composition skills which progress through the year according to the National Curriculum requirements. Throughout the school, all writing outcomes are based around our thematically linked texts so children can experience a wide variety of writing opportunities across a range of genres. Our Writing Curriculum has been structured to ensure that the same text types include the grammatical features appropriate to each year group in order to demonstrate clear progression in writing across the school.

The use of different Oracy activities further engages the children, leading to a greater understanding of text types, characters, events and overall structure. This allows children to experiment confidently within their own writing.

IMPACT

In KS1 Phonics assessments are carried out at regular intervals throughout the year and data is analysed and used to tailor provision. Every KS1 child receives daily personalised phonics or spelling sessions, either with a teacher or TA.

• EYFS Writing results 81% achieved GLD
• KS1 Writing results 71% achieved ARE of which 6% achieved GDS
• KS2 Writing results 82% achieved ARE of which 16% achieved GDS