OLD CLEE PRIMARY ACADEMY

‘Inspired to Believe, Learning to Succeed’

Our Reading Story

At Old Clee Primary Academy, we aim to develop a love of reading which excites and engages our children. National Curriculum Intent The national curriculum for English aims to ensure that all pupils:

· Read easily, fluently and with good understanding

· Develop the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information

· Acquire a wide vocabulary, an understanding of grammar and knowledge of linguistic conventions for reading, writing and spoken language

· Appreciate our rich and varied literary heritage

· Write clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences

· Use discussion in order to learn; they should be able to elaborate and explain clearly their understanding and ideas

· Are competent in the arts of speaking and listening, making formal presentations, demonstrating to others and participating in debate

The National Curriculum programmes of study for key stage one and key stage two reading consist of two dimensions:

· Word reading

· Comprehension (listening and reading)

Intent

It is our intent at Old Clee Primary Academy to provide pupils with a high-quality education that will teach pupils to read and speak fluently, so that they can communicate their ideas and emotions to others effectively. We intend to encourage all pupils to read widely across both fiction, non-fiction and poetry texts to develop their knowledge of the world in which they live, extend their vocabulary bank, establish a love of reading, gain knowledge across the curriculum and develop their comprehension skills. It is our intention to ensure that, by the end of their primary education, all pupils are able to read fluently, and with confidence in any subject in preparation for their secondary education.

At Old Clee Primary Academy, it is our intention to ensure reading is at the core of all curriculum areas. Through choosing high quality texts, we intend to develop a love of reading. We want our children to recognise the pleasure they can experience from reading, as well as understand that reading allows them to discover new knowledge and fuels their imagination.

Our aim at Old Clee Primary Academy is to ensure all children learn to become readers. The term ‘reader’ means more than to be able to decode. To be a ‘reader’, children should find books ‘funny, exciting and wonderful; a rich source of amusement, entertainment, escapism, information as well as thought-provoking and, at times, challenging.

We have built our early reading curriculum around the ‘Five Pillars of Reading’.

1. Phonemic Awareness - When children start nursery, they are taught Letters and Sounds. Phase one sounds focus on environmental sounds, body percussion, rhythm and rhyme, alliteration, voice sounds and oral blending.

2. Phonics - Children progress to Read Write Inc. (RWI) where they begin to put phonemes and graphemes together.

3. Vocabulary - We promote high level, subject specific vocabulary through all of our curriculum areas. Children have access to shared books which are above their phonological knowledge level to develop their vocabulary and to help reduce any potential ‘vocabulary gap’.

4. Comprehension – Early comprehension skills focus upon how words can take a different meaning based on context. A lot of early comprehension is based on speaking and listening. This links into picture comprehension before moving to written comprehension.

5. Fluency – Fluency develops as children become more confident with sounds. Through daily RWI teaching, children’s sound knowledge and confident increases which allows fluency to develop.

This has been further enhanced by our recent journey towards becoming a thinking school. Metacognition underpins everything that we do at Old Clee. We aim to develop creative thinkers, resilient problem solvers and reflective questioners who are equipped with the skills and knowledge to make a positive impact in the world around them.

Implementation

Book Bag Books and ZPD Books At Old Clee Primary Academy, reading is an essential part of all children’s learning and progress. When children first start their reading journey in school, they have picture books and sound books to share at home with adults. When children are able to segment and blend, they will start to take home Book Bag Books. These books are directly linked to children’s RWI level which means they are reading books at home made up of sounds directly correlating to sounds children have learnt in school that day.

Once children have passed the phonics screening, the school’s main reading system is Accelerated Reader which engages students, motivates reading practice and improves reading progress. Children are given the opportunity to read in school four times per week for a 20-minute period in addition to reading at home with parents. A child reads a book, takes an online quiz, and gets immediate feedback. Children respond to regular feedback from the class teacher and they are motivated to make progress with their reading skills. Accelerated Reader gives teachers the information they need to monitor students’ reading practice and make informed decisions to guide their future learning. A comprehensive set of reports reveals how much a pupil has been reading, at what level of complexity, and how well they have understood what they have read. Pupils develop reading skills most effectively when they read appropriately challenging books – difficult enough to keep them engaged but not so difficult that they become frustrated. This is their ‘Zone of Proximal Development’ (ZPD). Children decide which book in their ZPD range they would enjoy reading next from our ZPD baskets. Children scan their books in and out independently which gives them ownership of their reading.

Phonics – Read Write Inc. (RWI)

Phonics is a very important 30-minute daily lesson in each class from the Nursery through to Year Two, also, in Years Three and Four if needed. Our school follows a synthetic phonics approach using Read Write Inc. (RWI) which develops the children’s ability to hear, discriminate, recognise and write the sound/s. Reception and Key Stage One children are regularly assessed and placed into phonic groups suited to their attainment level. For those pupils who require additional support, interventions are implemented during the afternoon sessions. Children in Year One take the Phonics Screening Test in May. Those who don’t achieve the pass mark retake the test again in Year Two. Any children who have not reached the pass mark during the retake are tracked through Years Three and Four where appropriate support is given. This could be a daily RWI lesson or Keep Up Not Catch Up. As part of our RWI phonics programme, we have additional daily tutoring sessions for children who have gaps with specific sounds. Gaps are identified and worked on intensely until children are secure. Children are taught on a one-to-one basis and we work on the ‘Keep Up, Not Catch Up’ ethos. When ready, our Year Two pupils access RWI Comprehension which focuses on turning our decoders into readers who comprehend and fully understand what they have read.

Spelling

Across Key Stage One and Key Stage Two, we have created and implemented a spelling scheme which we have called ‘sphonics’. Children learn their spellings through a phonics approach which enables them to focus on key sounds within words. We have spiralised year group’s key spellings so children are exposed to them several times throughout the year. Each class across the academy has a Speed Sounds chart on display. Children are directed to interact with the sound charts when spellings tricky or unfamiliar words across all areas of the curriculum.

Bug Club

Our competent Key Stage Two decoders develop reading comprehension through the Bug Club Comprehension Scheme. Bug Club comprehension gives the opportunity to read a wide range of fiction, non-fiction and poetry books in a structured, challenging and progressive approach. Thirty to forty minute lessons take place daily across Key Stage Two developing eight key reading skills; clarifying, summarising, activating prior knowledge, visualising, connecting, predicting, questioning and evaluating. The structure of each session enables pupils to work collaboratively as well as independently and guided within a teacher led group.

Class Books

At Old Clee Primary Academy, we help nurture a love of reading by ensuring all children encounter the enjoyment of being read to. Each year group has a half termly class book which is read, by the class teacher, throughout the day or at the end of the day to deepen understanding. The teacher’s role is to help pupils make sense of the text, know the meaning of words and how they fit together in a sentence, recall the sequence of events and main ideas and to know about typical characters and their traits. Successful comprehension is dependent on being able to relate different parts of the text to each other and to draw on knowledge of the world, life experiences, story conventions, books, language and vocabulary.

Library

Children are encouraged to enhance their reading through the school’s fortnightly library loan service where we ensure pupils are guided to fiction, non-fiction and poetry texts. We aim for our libraries to encourage curiosity, innovation and problem-solving and a central point for all kinds of reading, cultural activities, access to information, knowledge building, deep thinking and lively discussion. Not only are they a haven in which children can lose themselves in a book they have chosen for pleasure, at Old Clee Primary Academy, our libraries promote reading more widely across the curriculum by housing a broad knowledge of inquiry models, information texts and tools, and literature to suit pupils at all levels. We understand that by providing a wealth of texts across a broad and diverse curriculum, we will also promote the development of our children’s ‘cultural capital’.

Impact

Reading for Life If we can guide children through the reading process during their time at Old Clee Primary Academy, using challenging, exciting and varied texts, we will have a job well done! But more than this, hopefully, our children become readers for life who will recall the memories we gave them that made them children of books. By the time children leave us, they are competent readers who can recommend books to their peers, have a thirst for reading a range of genres including poetry, and participate in discussions about books, including evaluating an author’s use of language and the impact this can have on the reader. Through the teaching of systematic phonics, our aim is for children to become fluent readers by the end of Key Stage One. This way, children can focus on developing their fluency and comprehension as they move through the school. Attainment in reading is measured using the statutory assessments at the end of Key Stage One and Two. These results are measured against the reading attainment of children nationally. Attainment in phonics is measured by the Phonics Screening Test at the end of Year One. However, we firmly believe that reading is the key to all learning and so the impact of our reading curriculum goes beyond the results of the statutory assessments. We give all children the opportunity to enter the magical worlds that books open up to them. We promote reading for pleasure as part of our reading curriculum. Children are encouraged to develop their own love of genres and authors and to review their books objectively. This enhances a deep love of literature across a range of genres, cultures and styles.

Successes in 2022-2023

Both the Key Stage One and Key Stage Two libraries have proven to be a huge success with the children. Children have enjoyed spending time in the libraries looking at our vast range of fiction, non-fiction and poetry books. We have implemented of '100% Club' which is an incentive for those children who get 100% on their Accelerated Reader quiz. At the end of Key Stage 2, reading attainment was above National Expectations.

Priorities in 2023-2024

• To monitor the teaching of reading from Early Years Foundation Stage to Year Six to ensure that rich vocabulary is a main focus.
• To develop develop creative thinkers, resilient problem solvers and reflective questioners who are equipped with the skills and knowledge to make a positive impact in the world around them.
• To develop reading for pleasure across the academy (separate action plan).
• To work towards achieving the Bronze Lincolnshire Reading Pledge.

Reading Updates

World Book Day 2024!

Across the Academy, the children took part in lots of fun activities to celebrate World Book Day! We were delighted to welcome into the Academy, Bethany Walker, a local author who shared with us her journey and tips to becoming an author. Alongside this, the children took part in an exciting book swap as well as sharing our outstanding number of entries to the Book in a jar competition! We've also taken part in lots of book talk, teacher reading swaps and even becoming authors ourselves! The children had an amazing day!

World Book Day 2023 - Thursday 2nd March 

In school

The children are getting very excited for World Book Day this year. On the day, children and staff are going to come to school dressed as their favourite book character. Children have been asked to bring a copy of their favourite book to school with them and they are going to read it with their buddy from a different class. Children will also complete exciting World Book Day activities throughout the day.

At home

Can you capture your child reading in an unusual place? We are asking for photos of children reading in strange and wonderful places. Send them in via the office or as a hard copy and we will put them on our display. 

office@oldcleepa.co.uk 

Reading Challenge 

We have introduced new reading records to children in years 1-6. The children have been set a challenge to read a hundred books before the end of the school year. These books will be books provided by school and read at school or at home. 

Please watch the following links for a full explanation of how our reading records work.

The aim

https://somup.com/c3QiI7U0k6 

What to record

https://somup.com/c3QiINU0kU

Important information

https://screencast-o-matic.com/watch/c3QQQgVOjcA  

Libraries

In both KS1 and KS2 we have fantastic libraries which both the children and staff absolutely love. Both libraries are full of exciting non-fiction, fiction and poetry books for us all to enjoy.