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Reading is a vital life skill and we are committed to our children to become enthusiastic and reflective readers. Through contact with interesting, high quality texts, we aim to develop both reading for pleasure and reading comprehension. 

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Reading Aims

• Provide rich, simulating and high-quality reading

       environments

• Enable pupils to read with confidence, fluency, accuracy

       and understanding

• Foster an enthusiasm and passion for reading

• Develop pupil’s comprehension skills of inference and

      deduction

• Ensure pupils make good progress in reading

 

Reading in Early Years

Reading opens a world of imagination and possibility to our children and we aim to develop fluent, accurate, confident readers who comprehend texts and have an enthusiasm about reading that will last a lifetime.  Reading begins the moment our children enter the two-year-old provision, experiencing stories read to them both individually and as a group. Children hear rich vocabulary to support language development. Fiction and nonfiction books are chosen carefully to reflect language needs and to develop interest and enthusiasm. Staff use speaking and listening games from a variety of sources including ‘Essential letters and sounds’ where rhymes, singing and story time are part of everyday provision. Children are encouraged to take books from school to share with their parents. The Book start programme takes place on an annual basis. 

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Once the children enter Nursery ‘Essential Letters and Sounds’ is used systematically. Children continue to experience activities from Phase 1 – learning alliteration, rhyming, nursery rhymes and tongue twisters and the initial sounds in their name.

 

In Reception the children work through phase 2,3 and 4 of ‘Essential letters and sounds’ learning to blend and segment known sounds and read ‘tricky’ non-decodable words by sight.  Reading is supported through daily phonics lessons as well as decodable text and reading books matched closely to what the children can decode and read independently.  Children read 1:1 and when ready in small groups.  

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We use a variety of publisher including Bug Club, Oxford Reading Tree, Dandelion, Big Cat Collins, project X and PM books. Parents are encouraged to complete a reading diary and meetings are held annually to support parents in understanding how we teach reading at Eden Park.

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Children are taught reading in KS1 through 1:1 or guided reading groups as well as through ‘Essential letters and sounds’ and decodable texts. In KS2 children learn the skills of reading through explicitly taught shared reading sessions as well as enjoying a class reader when the teacher can challenge thinking and enrich vocabulary. Teachers will often direct pupils to authors that will meet their interests or similar authors/styles they will enjoy. This ensures that the children will have a rich and varied diet of texts including fiction, non-fiction, newspapers and poetry. 

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Reading skills taught include:

• Teach reading strategies

        (e.g. segmenting and blending, chunking, re-reading) 

• Provide a context for the teacher to teach high frequency words,

      decoding skills, use of clues (picture and textual) and to support prediction.

• Provide opportunity to practise reading skills and develop fluency

• Support pupils in developing and applying their comprehension skills

• Monitor pupil progress and plan next steps

• Select texts that provide pupils with a range of reading materials which

       engage and challenge the pupil at their appropriate reading level.

 

Shared Reading 

 

This is the opportunity to share texts with the children that they would not normally access or be able to interpret on their own. The reading skills taught in the shared reading session are usually appropriate to the age of the children rather than their reading ability. However, we ensure that children of all reading abilities will be able to engage with the text.

 

The children begin by becoming fully immersed in the text, they read alongside the teacher who will have modelled the correct way to emphasise the language and punctuation. The teacher's role is to immerse the children to provoke response, extend the children's replies and encourage critique. Comprehension is developed through lots of talk, the exchange of ideas and is then followed up by appropriate activities. We delve heavily into the vocabulary of each piece and make sure that throughout the year we use a wide range of texts. 

 

Reading development through shared reading; 

• reading for enjoyment

• defining and understanding vocabulary and then

       developing this into different contexts

• understanding the text

• questioning characters, facts, the author

• retrieving information and ideas

• interpreting what the author is saying

• responding, personal responses

• author's style, use of language and viewpoint 

• structure and organisation of the text

• purpose and audience of the text

• making links to other texts, themes, times and cultures

• how the author's techniques can inform the children's writing

• text is explored with a particular focus informed by the objective

• all children are included through strong, varied and differentiated questioning

• children are supported in learning how to articulate their responses, interpretation and analysis of what they read.

 

Our shared reading sessions are carefully interwoven with our vocabulary and English teaching. This allows the children to make concrete links and transfer their skills across the curriculum. 

 

Our school library is central to both our building and ethos. All classes have library time to explore and delight in reading for pleasure. We also use this time to teach the children about how a library works and each class visits the local town library every year as part of their Eden entitlement.   

 

Each day often ends with a sustained class read from the class teacher. This will be an ambitious text that challenges the children’s thinking, allows for questions and further exploration of vocabulary.  

 

The promotion of reading is prominent at Eden Park Academy. As you enter you will see texts that have ignited English learning, a vast and inviting Library, imaginative book corners with texts that tempt and buzz of conversations around reading.

 

“The world belongs to those who read.”

                                                        Rick Holland