Intent- why does our reading curriculum look like this?
A passion for reading and a love of books is a key part of our educational provision here at Barley Fields Primary. The progressive development and eventual mastery of reading skills begins in nursery and is a key priority across the whole school. Our philosophy is for all children to find pleasure in reading and we allocate time each day to develop the habit of quiet reading or to listen to stories being read aloud by adults.
In school we have an extensive and rich literary environment with the provision of high-quality reading materials in all areas of the school including fiction, non-fiction, poetry and reference books. Every classroom contains a variety of books for reading or sharing and class readers are enjoyed by teachers and children alike.
We have carefully designed a structured and progressive reading curriculum which evolves as children progress through the school. Each year group teaches reading utilising a variety of approaches and teaching strategies which we have carefully selected and chosen to match the needs of our children.
Integral to each curriculum plan is a reading spine of books that forms the basis of our extended reading curriculum. In every year group high quality children’s literature runs alongside the teaching and learning of writing and children are encouraged to discover the joy in reading books by a wide range of respected authors including Julia Donaldson, Roald Dahl, Michael Morpurgo, Charles Dickens and Shakespeare. Children are encouraged to read poetry and to learn by heart poems for performance to different audiences.
Implementation – How do we achieve this?
The teaching of reading is a timetabled part of every day and teachers will utilise a range of strategies in order to deliver the curriculum. Our medium-term schemes of learning ensure children experience balance within the curriculum and different teaching strategies are employed as the children develop more independence in their reading. The school reading pathway (indicated below) illustrates the typical reading journey children experience.
Reading Resources
The implementation of our Reading curriculum is supported by a graded reading scheme which uses resources from a variety of published materials including:
Our books are organised into resourcing for Guided Reading and Individual Reading and are graded by colour bands according to levels of challenge, phonic content and accessibility. These bandings are linked to age related expectations, curriculum end points and assessment of reading skills.
Guided Reading and Reciprocal Reading
In teaching reading the school follows three progressive models of delivery – guided, reciprocal and individual reading. Our approaches are underpinned by taught comprehension and read and respond activities. The implementation of these strategies is linked to the age and ability of children but all are designed to aid the development of reading fluency, enhance comprehension and understanding and develop side the skills of inference and deduction.
From the end of Year 3 children also enhance their reading skills with the use of Reading Plus. This is an online adaptive reading programme designed to support individual readers using an extensive library of informational and narrative reading materials.
Involving Parents
We recognise and value our shared role in developing your child’s skills as a reader from reading aloud and sharing books, to developing their understanding and skill in extracting information. We involve parents a great deal in the teaching of reading and staff will explain and support you in your important role in relation to this in each Key Stage. Every child will bring reading materials home daily along with a Reading Record. This book is used across the school and we ask you to make constructive comments and record when your child practices their reading at home. We really value your support in completing the Reading Record as it has a major impact on children’s progress.
Our children understand the core skills and knowledge needed to develop as a reader with the use of the school curriculum character – Ravi the Reader. This character is regularly used to encourage children to reflect on the key skills needed for reading with enjoyment and with understanding.
Please see the links below to view key documentation related to the school reading curriculum and advice and support for helping your child at home.
Impact – how will we know our children are achieving?
At Barley Fields we are proud of our children’s attitudes towards reading which in turn lead to excellent attainment outcomes. By the end of each key stage, pupils are expected to know, apply and understand the skills and techniques specified in the relevant curriculum plans and guided reading assessment sheets.
Pupil attainment and progress is assessed using our SONAR tracking system which identifies clear and progressive end points. This ensures progress is maintained and end of key stage expectations are met by all children. Children are assessed termly and a final summative assessment made at the end of the academic year. Children will be assessed as either Emerging, Developing, Secure or Exceeding, in accordance with Age Related Expectations.
In addition, we measure the impact of our curriculum through the following methods:
- A reflection on standards achieved against the planned outcomes;
- A celebration of learning for each term which demonstrates progression across the school (Curriculum Floor book);
- Tracking of knowledge in pre and post learning activities;
- Pupil discussions about their learning (Pupil Voice);
- The annual tracking of standards across the curriculum. In EY, KS1 and KS2