Phonics and Reading
Intent, Implementation & Impact Statement for Reading
Intent
At Kings Norton, reading is at the heart of the school. We work hard to promote a life-long love for reading which enriches and develops the social, emotional and cultural awareness of our students. It is the love of reading and the ability to comprehend meaning which will help prepare our children for the world around them and ensure they are ready to navigate and participate in complex and ever-changing environments.
At Kings Norton, we strive to make reading accessible to all students. Through our teaching and support, we aim for children to develop a reading mind-set where they are able to engage meaningfully with texts through a toolkit of strategies. By doing this, they achieve competence and comprehension as well as an ability to break down a sense of otherness that often leads to division. We aim to equip children with a range of reading skills which results in personal empowerment and enthusiasm for a broad range of personal interests.
Implementation
To ensure children are given the best start on their reading journey, at Kings Norton we adopt the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds revised scheme for phonics and reading in KS1.
As children progress through the curriculum, we develop and extend children’s reading through talk, engaging teaching, lesson activities, varied texts and events and opportunities to read with adults and their peers. Reading for pleasure is valued across the school, and is supported through daily reading (where children build their ‘reading miles’) comfortable, organised reading spaces, initiatives such as ‘Author of the Month’ and a reading reward scheme. Children are invited to discuss and question books, put them into personal, historical and cultural contexts and recommend texts to their peers.
At Kings Norton, we provide children with a toolkit of reading skills which enable them to interrogate a text meaningfully ‘in the moment’. Through active reading skills, including retrieving, questioning and prediction, visualisation, background knowledge and inference, children are able to develop their understanding of the meaning of words and phrases, the sequence of events and the content, themes and messages of a text. When children encounter breaks in their understanding, we provide methods and repeated opportunities for children to acknowledge their own breaks and deploy strategies to address misunderstandings. By doing this, we equip children to become independent learners, and ensure good learning habits which transcend the subject of reading and manifest themselves in all areas of the curriculum.
Children at Kings Norton read books which are relevant to their reading age through the use of the Accelerated Reader programme. Pupils’ progress is monitored through low-stakes quizzes and half-term tests. This allows a meaningful link to home - parents are aware of their child's text and their level of understanding and progress through the academic year.
Our teachers know their readers. Adults listen to children read on a weekly basis. We work hard to cater to all our learners, providing a range of quality texts and challenging activities as well as timely and targeted intervention support for those who need it.
In addition, throughout the school year our Reading curriculum is enhanced through World Book Day, book fairs, local library visits and a range of trips which enrich and complement children’s learning. We also run workshop sessions for our parents across year groups, focusing on phonics, reading strategies and reading routines.
Impact
At Kings Norton, students produce a range of outcomes which are formatively assessed by teachers. Progress is closely monitored with gaps and misconceptions addressed through interventions and pre-tutoring.
Students also undertake low-stake quizzes based on what they have read. This ensures children are not reading passively but instead actively engaging with the text. The reading age of children is also assessed termly and data is used by year group teams to inform support when reading with children.
Children are presented with engaging activities which challenge their understanding of a text and prepare them for the rigour of summative assessments.
Students will be able to deploy a range of reading strategies independently and be able to use them across a range of other academic subjects. Children will be able to talk to adults and their peers about books from a range of authors and genres.
Reading For Pleasure
Reading For Pleasure
We are committed to successfully developing a reading culture encompassing a genuine love of reading which is firmly embedded and embraced throughout the whole school. We want children and staff to become life-long readers together who actively read for pleasure and information. Staff are encouraged to share their own reading preferences and invite the children to recognise and share their own. Staff are then able to support children to make informed choices about the books that they choose to read. By celebrating and encouraging reading together we can inspire children to become self-motivated, engaged readers who enjoy reading for pleasure both in school and at home. We fully recognise the value of parents / carers as essential components to supporting and developing reading skills and a love of reading.
Kings Norton Primary School has taken part in the Reading for Pleasure project led by the Open University.