Reading is at the heart of all we do.  This is reflected in the huge investment we have made in our new fully decodable reading scheme (Big Cat Phonics for Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised) and our Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised phonics scheme.  Our recent “Boogie for Books” has raised additional funds to further diversify our reading for pleasure books across the curriculum.

Our children experience a rich reading environment taking home a sharing book, a library book and one fully decodable book each week.  For our children who find the reading journey more challenging additional support is provided through intervention lessons, daily catch up and additional reading sessions.

Intent

At Trumps Green Infant School, reading is at the heart of all we do and is a key driver for our curriculum.

It is our intention to ensure that all pupils are able to read fluently and with confidence by the time they leave us for junior school.

Phonics

At Trumps Green Infant School, we believe that all our children can become fluent readers and writers.  This is why we teach reading through Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised, which is a systematic and synthetic phonics programme. We start teaching phonics in Reception and follow the little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised progression, which ensures children build on their growing knowledge of the alphabetic code, mastering phonics to read and spell as they move through school.

As a result, all our children are able to tackle any unfamiliar words as they read. At Trumps Green Infant School, we also model the application of the alphabetic code through phonics in shared reading and writing, both inside and outside of the phonics lesson and across the curriculum. We have a strong focus on language development for our children because we know that speaking and listening are crucial skills for reading and writing in all subjects.

We, therefore, intend to encourage all pupils to read widely across both fiction and non-fiction to develop: knowledge of themselves and the world in which they live; to establish an appreciation and love of reading; to gain knowledge across the curriculum; and develop their comprehension skills. We are committed to providing vocabulary rich reading material and closely matched phonetically decodable books.

Comprehension

At Trumps Green Infant School, we value reading as a crucial life skill. By the time children leave us, they read confidently for meaning and regularly enjoy reading for pleasure. Our readers are equipped with the tools to tackle unfamiliar vocabulary. We encourage our children to see themselves as readers for both pleasure and purpose.

Because we believe teaching every child to read is so important, we have a Reading Leader who drives the early reading programme in our school. This person is highly skilled at teaching phonics and reading, and they monitor and support our reading team, so everyone teaches with fidelity to the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised programme.

Implementation

Daily phonics lessons

• We teach phonics for 30 minutes a day. Children make a strong start with their reading in Reception with teaching beginning in Week 2 of the Autumn term.
• In Reception, we build our lessons from 10-minute lessons, with additional daily oral blending games, to full-length lesson as quickly as possible.
• In all classes, we review the week’s teaching each Friday, to help children become fluent readers.
• We follow the little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised expectations of progress (see attached)
  • Children in Reception are taught to read and spell words using Phase 2 and 3 GPCs, and words with adjacent consonants (Phase 4) with fluency and accuracy.
  • Children in Year 1 review Phase 3 and 4 and are taught to read and spell words using Phase 5 GPCs with fluency and accuracy.
  • Children in Year 2 review Phase 5 before moving onto Year 2 spelling rules and Guided Reading sessions

Daily Keep-up lessons ensure every child learns to read

• Any child who needs additional practice has daily Keep-up support, taught by a fully trained adult. Keep-up lessons match the structure of class teaching, and use the same procedures, resources and mantras, but in smaller steps with more repetition, so that every child secures their learning.
• Once we have completed the Little Wandle phonics programme in Year 2, we will continue to timetable daily phonics lessons for any child who is not fully fluent at reading or has not passed the Phonics screening check. These children need to catch up, so the gap between themselves and their peers does not widen. We use the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised assessments to identify the gaps in their phonic knowledge and teach to these using the Keep-up resources – at pace. 

Teaching reading: Reading practice sessions three times a week

• We teach children to read through reading practice sessions three times a week. These:
  • are taught by a fully trained adult to small groups of approximately six children

  • use books matched to the children’s secure phonic knowledge using the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised assessments and book matching grids on pages 11–20 of ‘Application of phonics to reading’

  • are monitored by the class teacher, who rotates and works with each group on a regular basis.
• Before starting the book the phonemes contained within the book are practised and children and teachers blend and segment the words.  The high frequency words within the book are introduced as well as any new vocabulary with its meaning being explained.
• Each reading practice session has a clear focus, so that the demands of the session do not overload the children’s working memory. The reading practice sessions have been designed to focus on three key reading skills:
  • decoding: using our phonic knowledge to sound out words
  • prosody: teaching children to read with understanding and expression
  • comprehension: teaching children to understand the text.
• In Reception these sessions start in Week 4. Children who are not yet decoding have daily additional blending practice in small groups, so that they quickly learn to blend and can begin to read books.
• In Year 2, we continue to teach reading in this way for any children who still need to practise reading with decodable books.
• Once children are reading fluently, confidently and with good comprehension (end of phase 5), children move on to book banded books.  
• All children from Year 2 take part in daily reading practice sessions. Teachers use these to introduce pupils to a range of genres and to teach a range of techniques which enable children to comprehend the meaning of what they read. Fluency is assessed on a termly basis and interventions put in place for those who need it. 
• Comprehension skills are taught from the very beginning of reading with teachers checking children’s understanding of class books as well as individual readers and children being encouraged to generate their own questions.  In Years 1 and 2 children take part in Book Talk lessons for each of their Talk For Writing Units.  Children in Year 2 are taught a range of comprehension techniques within the unit and practise these using the class text.

Home reading

• The decodable reading practice book is taken home to ensure success is shared with the family.
  • Reading fr pleasure sharing books and library books also go home for parents to share and read to children.
  • We use the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised parents’ resources to engage our families and share information about phonics, the benefits of sharing books, how children learn to blend and other aspects of our provision, both online and through workshops.

Ensuring consistency and pace of progress

• Every teacher in our school has been trained to teach reading, so we have the same expectations of progress. We all use the same language, routines and resources to teach children to read so that we lower children’s cognitive load.
• Weekly content grids map each element of new learning to each day, week and term for the duration of the programme.
• Lesson templates, Prompt cards and How to videos ensure teachers all have a consistent approach and structure for each lesson.
• The Reading Leader and SLT use the Audit and Prompt cards to regularly monitor and observe teaching; they use the summative data to identify children who need additional support and gaps in learning.

Ensuring reading for pleasure

‘Reading for pleasure is the single most important indicator of a child’s success.’ (OECD 2002)

‘The will influences the skill and vice versa.’ (OECD 2010)

We value reading for pleasure highly and work hard as a school to grow our Reading for Pleasure pedagogy.

• We read to children every day. We choose these books carefully as we want children to experience a wide range of books, including books that reflect the children at Trumps Green Infant School and our local community as well as books that open windows into other worlds and cultures.
• Every classroom has an inviting book corner that encourages a love for reading. We curate these books and talk about them to entice children to read a wide range of books.
• In Reception, children have access to the reading corner every day as part of their continuous provision and the books are continually refreshed.
• All children have a home reading record. The parent/carer records comments to share with the adults in school and the adults will write in this on a regular basis to ensure communication between home and school.
• Each child will have a timetabled visit the school library once a week and encouraged to experience a range of books.
•  Children across the school have regular opportunities to engage with a wide range of Reading for Pleasure events (book fairs, author visits and workshops, national events).

Impact

The Reading curriculum is evaluated through:

• Phonics assessments
• EYFS data
• Phonics screening and phonics resits data
• KS1 fluency and word recognition
• KS1 reading SATs results

Assessment

Assessment is used to monitor progress and to identify any child needing additional support as soon as they need it.

• Assessment for learning is used:

  • daily within class to identify children needing Keep-up support
  • weekly in the Review lesson to assess gaps, address these immediately and secure fluency of GPCs, words and spellings.

• Summative assessment is used:

  • every half term to assess progress, to identify gaps in learning that need to be addressed, to identify any children needing additional support and to plan the Keep-up support that they need.
  • by SLT and scrutinised through the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised assessment tracker, to narrow attainment gaps between different groups of children and so that any additional support for teachers can be put into place.
• The Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised placement assessment is used:
  • with any child new to the school to quickly identify any gaps in their phonic knowledge and plan provide appropriate extra teaching.

Statutory assessment

• Children in Year 1 sit the Phonics screening check. Any child not passing the check re-sits it in Year 2.
• Children in Year 2 sit the Year 2 End of Key Stage Reading SATS papers

Scrutiny

• Teaching and learning is evaluated by learning walks, drop ins, moderation sessions, pupil interviews and work scrutinies.
• Internal moderations are carried out 3 times a year, unless teachers wish to moderate with the English lead more frequently.  External moderations are carried out once a year with learning partnership schools.  The analysis of this is used to identify areas of development and any children who are not making expected progress.
• KS1 outcomes were moderated by external moderators in 2019.  The moderator summarised that there was a wide range of evidence used to form judgements of reading and that these were fully in line with the KS1 framework.  Teachers showed good knowledge of the children and there was support for parents in the reading records.

Data outcomes

 

	2019 School	2019 National	2018 School	2018 National
EYFS	86%		82%
EYFS Disadvantaged	14%		60%
EYFS GD (3)	24%		20%
EYFS Disadvantaged GD (3)	0%		20%
Phonics Screening	79%	82%	90%	82%
Phonics Screening Disadvantaged	80%		72%
Phonics Resit	63%	91%	75%	92%
KS1 Reading Expected	78%	75%	80%	75%
KS1 Reading Expected Disadvantaged	57%		50%
KS1 Reading Greater Depth	25%	25%	28%	26%
KS1 Reading Greater Depth Disadvantaged	14%		0%