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Reading at St Anne's

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Reading is at the heart of St Anne's Primary School and we want all our children to be passionate about reading. Therefore, we make sure that all children have access to a range of exciting, diverse and language-rich books and reading materials. Every classroom has a stimulating and engaging book corner, and we provide many opportunities for children to read, and be read to, throughout the school day.

Children at St Anne's are exposed to a varied diet of Reading. Reading weaves its way through the curriculum, the classroom environment and the wider culture of the school.

Children are exposed to reading through:

  • ‘Teaching of Reading’ – daily whole class lessons from Y2-6 and small group and 1:1 sessions in EYFS and Y1
  • Reading opportunities across the curriculum
  • Classroom book corners
  • Story time
  • Opportunities for independent reading
  • Reading at home
  • Visits to the school library and to Caversham Library
  • Reading buddies
  • Reading volunteers
  • Author / Poet visits and workshops
  • Parents and Carers Reading Together Sessions in EYFS 
  • Bedtime stories after school with Reception and Key Stage 1 children

How we teach reading at St Anne's

Whole-class guided reading

Once pupils have completed our phonics programme, they move onto the ‘Literary Leaves’ programme for reading. This is taught as a whole-class guided session in order to expose all pupils to high-quality language and discussion. Teachers use whole books rather than extracts in order to increase engagement and reading stamina when teaching the skills of comprehension. Pupils spend between 4 to 6 weeks studying one text, each session focussing on a particular skill, to ensure that children develop the skills to become critical readers.

Our principles of whole-class guided reading:

  • Children work in mixed-attainment pairs so as to allow for frequent, paired discussion and so that less confident readers are exposed to the high-quality reasoning of more confident readers.
  • Texts chosen should provide a clear challenge for all members of the class, including the most-able readers. 
  • When reading, the teacher modelS good use of intonation, movement, volume and expression in order for pupils to emulate this. As well as reading aloud to their class, teachers use the following strategies for oral reading: whole-class choral reading, ‘jump-in’ and paired reading.
  • Teachers actively monitor the pace of their reading so as to ensure high levels of engagement throughout the lesson. Teachers intersperse longer stints of reading with paired discussions or independent tasks.
  • Teachers use targeted and open-ended questioning.
  • When discussing literature, the teacher models high-quality responses with evidence and explanations and expects these high-quality responses from pupils too. Teachers use question stems in order to encourage high-quality responses from pupils. For example:

“The author has used the word ___________ to suggest  ___________  because it is associated with  ___________ .”

Teaching is underpinned by a high-quality text

Each new unit for English starts with a beautiful, high-quality text. These texts offer opportunities for empathy and philosophical enquiry, developing the spoken language though through debate, drama and discussion, which will spark their imagination. Our texts have been specifically chosen so that pupils are exposed to: 

  • Classic novels 
  • Current and controversial world affairs, e.g. ‘global warming’ and ‘gender equality’
  • Variety of different cultures, ethnicities and faiths through stories
  • Books which are relevant to our locality and community

Lessons

  • Teachers plan lessons to ensure all children are challenged appropriately. However, we recognise that for varying reasons, some children need more support in their learning. Throughout lessons, adults will work with guided groups to support their vocabulary acquisition, sentence construction and demonstrate the writing process.
  • Pupils who need additional support with their reading or phonics are provided with targeted intervention using the ‘Bug Club’ programme. For pupils in KS1, this is in small groups which takes place for 15 minutes each day. Those in Year 2 to Year 6, follow the ‘Catch up Reading’ programme which takes place twice a week. 
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