Reading

Reading for Meaning (RfM) – Intent

At Blair Peach Primary School, English is a second language for the majority, if not all of our pupils and we recognise that our pupils enter Nursery and Reception with low baseline entry points. It is also imperative that we endeavour to present books in school in which pupils can see equal representation of their own diverse communities – this is a new challenge and we will work hard to source these.

Our staff understand that once children start school, we are key in supporting our pupils to become fluent and confident at both decoding and reading for meaning in order for them to develop the skills they need to read with fluency, prosody and comprehension. We recognise that developing pupils’ use of a breadth of vocabulary is critical if we are going to improve their life chances at the age of 16 and beyond so that they can compete on a level playing field with their peers from word-rich backgrounds in English.

We also believe that Reading is a super-skill which transcends across all subjects from the Wider Curriculum and if our pupils are to access this curriculum, they must be supported to practice their reading strategies in every subject and in particular to develop their knowledge and understanding of technical vocabulary through Non-Fiction texts.

We recognise that these aspirations we have for our pupils, can-not be realised without the constant daily practice of the skill of reading as this will expand their reading range and ‘grow’ their application of the ‘code’ and ‘reading mileage’. We believe regular practice will allow them to embed reading behaviours within their own skill sets and support them to know more and remember more about the conventions and contexts within which narrative and information is presented.

We want our pupils to have equal access to consistent practice in the Teaching and Learning of Reading so that when our pupils are at school, their entitlement to a right to education is the same, regardless of ability which is why we prefer teaching our pupils to the expected standard as a minimum expectation wherever possible.

We understand that Post Covid, we are facing the challenges of gaps in lost learning and catch-up will be crucial so that we can close these gaps and support our pupils to get back on track with their Reading. 

We know that we must immerse our pupils in a language rich environment where children read, hear, share and talk about a breadth of literary traditions through songs, rhymes, repetitive poems & poetry, tales, fables, myths & legends, classic and modern genres alike.

At BPPS, we believe: 1) A language rich environment where ‘Talk’ is key in developing pupils’ composition of language is essential as part of our Quality First Teaching and 2) Reading is reciprocal to Writing and the two are intrinsically linked. Seeing and reading the written word and hearing it read correctly with prosody and clear articulation of spoken sentence structures and punctuation, is the bridge between pupils’ composition and transcription when Writing.

Reading for Meaning – Implementation (Teaching and Learning)

The Reading for Meaning Curriculum will be taught with a strong focus on key reading skills (Vocabulary; Inference; Impression; Predict; Identify and Explain conventions of Fiction and Non-Fiction texts; Sequence and Summary – VIPERS) through age appropriate high quality (high challenge and low quantity) texts. These will be whole class lessons and all year groups from Y2-6 aim to commit to two of these lessons a week. Retrieval Practice will be used to provide further opportunities for pupils to revisit and re-apply reading skills. The following skills will also be ‘key drivers’ to support the reading of Non-Fiction texts across the Wider Curriculum.

The structure of RfM lessons will provide ‘wrap around’ support for comprehension with:

• Retrieval Practice (Revise/revisit taught key reading skills and reading domains through starters)
• Vocabulary Check (Pre-teaching of key vocabulary; Spelling – linked to Phonics Phase/ HFW/ CEW/NC Word Lists)
• Learning Intention: Identified Reading Skill/Domain (New reading skills: Teach, Practice (Scaffold together) and Apply (independently)
• Strategy Check (Reading Strategies to be used/applied within the lesson)
  • Read the text/Explore the Text
  • Discussion/Book Talk (back and forth talk) and Sentence Frames to articulate a verbal response
  • Opportunities to model:
    • Verbal response- ‘My Turn/Your Turn’
    • Written Response- model, scaffold and edit and improve

• Respond to the text independently

Through: Reading Aloud and Re-Reading; Visualisation; Role on the Wall; Hot Seating; Freeze Framing; Conscience Alley; Story mapping; Story Walk; Thinking Maps such as ‘Double Bubble’; Book Review; Emotive Charts; Drama and Role-Play; Discussion and Debate; Expression through Art.

• Know More-Remember More: Dictation/Word Quiz/Word of the Day/Retrieval Practice/Improved Response.

Questioning:

• Question Bears will be used to encourage pupils to be curious about what they are reading: Who; What; When; Why; Where; How; What if?
• Key Question Formats will be used to frame questions pertinent to each Reading Skill: Find and Copy; Circle; Tick; Multiple choice; True/False; Fact/Opinion; Fill in the missing gaps; Sequence by Number/Letter; Matching by drawing lines; Complete Tables (Carroll Diagram Formats).
• Colourful Semantics will be used to support questioning and framing of verbal and written responses for our SEND pupils: Who; What doing; What; Where?

Reading for Meaning – Implementation (Teaching and Learning)

Vocabulary:

• Vocabulary growth will be encouraged through the teaching and Learning of Word Morphology and Etymology. Little Wandle (SSP) Phonics Programme will support pupils’ knowledge and understanding of Suffix and Prefix definitions which in turn will allow pupils to make connections with new vocabulary.
• Chris Quigley: Teaching and Learning Strategies will be used to reinforce and embed the teaching of vocabulary through multiple opportunities.

• My Learning Village will be used to support our EAL and newly arrived pupils to learn English by starting with the basics and building good foundations for English Vocabulary whilst also offering translated word banks to support EAL Learners make gains in progress when learning English.
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High Quality Core Texts for Poetry, Fiction and Non-Fiction will be drawn from CLPE Teaching Sequences and our Key Texts Grids but we endeavour that our default is a ‘growth mindset’ and we aim to refresh these regularly.

Reading for Practice and Pleasure

Running alongside our RfM Curriculum will be varied opportunities for pupils to practice reading independently and for pleasure:

• Independent Reading: Pupils can choose to read books for pleasure independently from their class reading areas; school and local libraries.
• 1:1 Reading with a familiar adult; 1:1 Reading Conferences.
• Shared Reading: All pupils will have opportunities to hear class novel or short stories/poems read to them by an adult at the end of the school day. and to talk about their reading. We believe pupils can start to understand texts and build comprehension from texts which have been shared with them through TALK and with the use of Prosody.
• Reading Practice with the use of Decodable Texts (matched to pupils Phonics Phase; Big Cat Collins matched to Little Wandle; BUG CLUB books matched with Little Wandle.
• An appreciation of Reading through Celebration: World Book Day; Author Visits; Book Fairs; Book Reviews; Book Recommendations; Author Studies and Readathons.
• Home Reading: Little Wandle matched Big Cat Collins and Bug Club E-Books are encouraged to be read at home to ensure that reading practice is extended to the home and shared between parents and their children.

Reading for Meaning: Impact

We aspire that as a given, our Reading for Meaning and Reading for Pleasure Curriculums support all our pupils to be ready for the next stages of their learning whether that be our Reception readers preparing to enter Y1; our Y2 readers transitioning to KS2 or our Y6 readers moving in to secondary school. We want our children to be fluent, confident and able readers who can access a range of texts for understanding, pleasure and enjoyment, in addition to being able to use their reading skills to unlock learning across all subjects of the curriculum. First and foremost, we firmly believe that reading is the key to all learning and so the impact of our reading curriculum has to support our pupils’ life chances at the age of 16 and beyond. We recognise that as our pupils’ use of Standard English improves then this provides opportunities for language skills to develop within pupils’ families and the impact of this is felt beyond our primary setting and demonstrates the interdependence of learning between school and home.

Secondly, the impact of our RfM and RfP Curriculums has got to be the link between Reading and Writing; seeing, reading and hearing the written word as well as practicing how to ‘talk’ following the correct syntax in English, will teach our pupils how to articulate themselves correctly and in turn this will impact how well they can write down these articulations by following the rules of Standard English correctly. Becoming confident English readers, speakers and writers is vital for our EAL learners as they move through the primary setting and beyond.

It goes without saying that as a school we are aspirational and we do want our pupils to do well in Statutory Assessments as we have high expectations of them: We wish to work our way back to 3 year trends prior to 2019 in Reading at ELG in EYFS; End of Key Stage One and Two so that our school is in line with or above National Expectations at the expected standard and at greater depth so that pupils meet or exceed their individual ambitious targets based on prior attainment.