Reading
Intent
At Rainford CE, reading is at the heart of out curriculum, and we ensure that reading for pleasure is a core part of every child’s educational entitlement, whatever their background or attainment, enabling all children to become independent, confident and successful life-long readers. We understand that reading is the key that will unlock learning across the curriculum, and that extensive reading and exposure to a wide range of high-quality texts will enable children to develop culturally, intellectually, socially and spiritually. For this reason, developing the ability to read well and to love reading is our highest priority. We believe it is the right of every children to learn to read but we also hope that our children will develop a deep love of reading that will stay will them as they go onto the next stage of their education.
At Rainford CE, we aim to:
- Develop an ethos and environment that values reading and excites, enthuses and inspires our children to read
- Choose high-quality texts with depth and interest in story, character, illustration, vocabulary, structure and subject matter
- Give children access to a wide range of text types e.g. age-related fiction and non-fiction, magazines, newspapers, comics, internet based texts
- Give children opportunities to read independently
- Encourage regular reading aloud by teachers and children
- Give children opportunities to discuss what they read, sharing responses and opinions
- Use high-quality texts across the curriculum
- Provide opportunities to celebrate reading and the work of authors and illustrators
Phonics
The school follows the Read, Write Inc phonics programme.
Home/School Reading
Children in Nursery take home a reading book from their class reading area to enjoy sharing with adults at home.
Children in Reception and Year 1 and some Year 2 pupils take home a phonics book linked to their reading level and sound knowledge. These books are changed weekly.
Children from Year 2 to Year 6 read books linked to the Accelerated Reader programme as their home reader.
The Accelerated Reader program is used to support home/school reading for pupils in KS2 and KS1 when children have been assessed as bing ready to progress. Through the use of Accelerated Reader, pupils are engaged and motivated to read and staff are able to more easily track the reading progress of children throughout the year. Accelerated Reader ensures that each child is supported and challenged to read at their appropriate level, whilst also celebrating progress both in class and on a whole school level.
Pupils undertake a short reading test at different points in the year that assigns them a reading band (or Z.P.D.). The children then select a book that falls within their Z.P.D. This reading band guides them towards choosing books at an appropriate reading level that are challenging without being frustrating. When they have read their reading book, they take a short quiz on the computer about the book they have read. If they pass the quiz, this tells us that they have fully understood the content of their book.
Children can take their quizzes at home, using the following link:
http://ukhosted20.renlearn.co.uk/2244503
As a part of our reading programme, we ask the following:
- children read their reading book at home, for between 10 to 20 minutes (depending upon the age of the child) each day
- children read their reading book at least 5 times per week
- children or parents (depending upn the age of the child) fill in their reading diary every time they read and have it signed by a parent
- parents (Reception to Year 4) write a short comment about their child’s reading progress 3 times per week (suggested comments are provided to support parents in doing this)
- older pupils (Year 5 and 6) are encouraged to write their own comment, 3 times per week, using the pupil comment ideas sheet attached to their reading record
Reading Spines
The aim of our reading spines are to expose children to a wide range of high-quality texts which will develop their love of reading and enable them to develop culturally, intellectually, socially and spiritually. We believe it is the right of every children to learn to read but we also hope that our children will develop a deep love of reading that will stay will them as they go onto the next stage of their education.
The books on our reading spine are available for children to read independently in school or as their home/school reader (in KS2) and a selection will also be read as part of the curriculum and as whole-class readers. The books on the reading spine have been chosen with the following in mind:
- books which positively reflect children’s interests and backgrounds
- books which deal with important themes
- books by significant children’s authors
- traditional and contemporary ‘classics’ of children’s literature
- stories from different cultural settings
- books which broaden children’s knowledge of the world
- books which expose children to a rich vocabulary and language