Reading

Intent

At Longshaw we believe that all children are entitled to receive a high quality English Curriculum that encourages them to develop a love of reading, show confidence in speaking and listening and become fluent writers. 

Reading has a high priority at Longshaw and is a key driver for our curriculum. It is our intention to ensure that by the end of their primary education, all pupils are able to read fluently, and with confidence, in any subject in their forthcoming secondary education.  

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
• to develop their comprehension skills.

We are committed to providing vocabulary rich reading material across the curriculum.

At Longshaw, we understand the challenge that exists between teaching children to be fluent readers whilst also ensuring that we support them to develop a love of reading. We have ensured therefore, that our reading scheme is congruent with the phonic phases and the sequence of teaching in Read, Write, Inc.

Our reading curriculum is designed to achieve a balance between developing the Instructional Agenda (the skill) and the Pleasure Agenda (the will).  It intends to promote a love of reading for all pupils whilst creating life-long readers who have the skills to access all areas of the curriculum with independence and confidence so that they go on to be successful in Key Stage 3, 4 and beyond.

Implementation

We have a holistic approach to the teaching of reading: 

• Early readers are taught using the Read Write Inc phonics scheme.
• We are very lucky to have a well stocked library. All children, from Nursery to Year 6, visit our school library each week. These sessions include input from adults about different authors and the children will discuss books. The children return their library books and get a new book each week, the focus of these sessions is for children to choose a book to develop a love of reading. Time in class is dedicated to reading for enjoyment.  
• Children are read to each day by their class teacher. As a school we have a set list of books which we think every children should experience before they leave primary school. You can see the book list here.  
• Children who are not yet 'free readers', will work through our school reading scheme – these are levelled books which match the children's current attainment and are linked to our phonics curriculum. We expect family at home to read these books with their child each evening and make comments in their child's reading record.  
• Each classroom has a selection of books in their classroom which are directly linked to learning. This offers opportunities for the children to apply their reading skills across the curriculum.  

Phonics 

The direct teaching of reading at Longshaw starts with phonics - at Longshaw we follow the Read Write Inc.  phonics programme. As part of this, children have a daily phonics session in small groups where they participate in speaking, listening and spelling activities that are matched to their developing needs. The teachers draw upon observations and continuous assessment to ensure children are stretched and challenged and to identify children who may need additional support. Children work through the programme, learning and developing their phonics sounds and knowledge. 

Parents, you can find useful information about how RWI Phonics works and resources to support your child at home here.

Comprehension 

At Longshaw we directly teach reading comprehension. This starts alongside the teaching of phonics and as the children become fluent at decoding words, we teach daily comprehension lessons.  Our approach focuses on the development of background knowledge to aid comprehension then moves on to the development of vocabulary and incorporates the teaching of the reading domains as outlined in the national curriculum.  

Reading Learning Journey

Impact

Through the teaching of systematic phonics, our aim is for children to become fluent and confident word readers by the end of KS1. As a Year 6 reader, transitioning into secondary school, we aspire that children are fluent, confident and able readers, who can access a range of texts for pleasure and enjoyment, as well as use their reading skills to unlock learning and all areas of the curriculum. We firmly believe that reading is the key to all learning and so the impact of our reading curriculum goes beyond the results of the statutory assessments.

Our aim is that by the time children leave Longshaw they are competent readers who can recommend books to their peers, have a thirst for reading a range of genres including poetry and participate in discussions about books including evaluating an author’s use of language and the impact this can have on the reader. 

Help Your Child With Reading

We have put together lists what we consider to be age-appropriate texts for your children, these can be found here.