Reading Policy

Adopted July 2023

Review Date: July 2024

Aims and Expectations

At Medlock Primary School we believe that all children have the right to receive high quality teaching and learning and we will strive to provide this at all times. Quality first teaching is essential for children making progress (physically, socially and emotionally as well as academically) and where appropriate, interventions will be put in place to support children’s individual needs. Communicating with each other, the children and

their parents, is crucial to ensuring the same strategies are used and continued in all areas where learning takes place. Well planned lessons and high quality resources, coupled with the before mentioned teaching and communication methods are imperative to ensuring children’s next steps are built upon and therefore make as much progress as possible.

In all areas of the curriculum promoting oracy is at the heart of our teaching and learning. During all lessons and activities planned, there will be opportunities for children to verbally share their ideas with each other and the whole class / group, ask and answer questions and be encouraged to extend their responses.

We aim for all children to leave Medlock Primary School as confident, fluent and expressive readers who can talk eloquently about what they’ve read and give their opinions about a range of texts.

Starting Point

For teachers to teach reading effectively they must firstly have a clear understanding of the reading process - the cognitive steps that need to happen and how they intertwine for a child to ‘make sense’ of a text. With this in mind, all staff are given the relevant training for them to do this effectively, as well as on-going support with sharpening their teaching of reading.

The starting point for all teaching staff is the Scarborough Rope model. Teaching staff must be familiar with this model as it forms the basis of all professional discussions about reading and a child’s ability to read.

Phonics and Decoding

Children in Nursery to Year 1 will take part in daily phonics lessons in line with our school’s scheme Little Wandle. Please see the school’s phonics policy for more information.

When More is Needed

In Years Reception to 6, interventions will be put in place for children who aren’t working at the age expected level for decoding. This will start with “keep up sessions” from Little Wandle (see phonics policy for more information) in smaller, more focused groups and then going on to alternative programmes to phonics when this is deemed necessary, such as a high frequency word sight reading programme, “Toe By Toe”, “Right to Read”, “Switch On” etc. It is the teacher’s responsibility to find out which interventions children have had in previous years to ensure that interventions aren’t repeated and that individual children’s needs are being catered for. Interventions may be run and resourced by teaching assistants or additional teachers but they remain the responsibility of the class teacher throughout.

Reading Practise and Guided Reading

Reading practise and guided reading are taught in small, focused and differentiated groups to ensure the children’s individual needs are met. Reading practise is done from Years Reception to Year 2, where a greater focus is put on decoding and links to phonics. Guided reading is done from Years 3 to 6, where a greater focus is put on comprehension and fluency. All members of staff are trained in both so that year groups can adapt their sessions where needed, to cater for all children’s individual needs.

Reading Practise

In Years Reception to 2, children will receive 3 adult led reading practise sessions a week, covering decoding and vocabulary, prosody and comprehension. The sessions will follow the following structure inline with the school’s phonics scheme Little Wandle:

Session 1: Decoding and Vocabulary (no written L.O. shared) 

-Revisit and Review: Share phonics, tricky and high frequency words and vocabulary cards, recapping decoding skills needed and the definitions and context of new vocabulary.

-Practise and Apply: Adult moves around the group listening to and coaching the children on their reading on a 1-1 basis with a decoding and vocabulary focus.

Session 2: Prosody (no written L.O. shared) 

-Revisit and Review: Share all cards from yesterday and recap as necessary, at a quicker pace than yesterday.

-Practise: Adult model prosody, explaining where and why each type of expression and fluency needs to be used, using the “copy me” method to give children the opportunity to practise the skills being taught.

-Apply: Adult to move around the group listening to and coaching the children on their reading on a 1-1 basis with a prosody focus.

Session 3: Comprehension (written L.O. and questions shared with the group) -Revisit and Review: Share all cards from yesterday and recap as necessary, at a quicker pace than yesterday.

-Practise: Adult share L.O. and hold discussion linked to the domain being focused on that week. Adult then shares the questions which will be asked at the end of the session and models applying the reading skills needed to answer these questions. -Apply: Adult ask a question and point out the designated page where the children will find the answer. Children to read the page independently and answer questions.

Class teachers need to ensure that they teach all 3 sections of reading practise to all groups at least twice each half term and to ensure that they teach all 5 reading domains at least twice to each group by the end of each year.

Nursery and Reception will have opportunities for “reading for pleasure” built into their exploring time and Years 1 and 2 will have it as a fifth station as part of their reading practise carousel. Years 1 and 2 will also complete a follow up reading comprehension

task (or phonics task where appropriate) linked to the book that they have read that week.

Guided Reading

Guided reading enables the teacher to focus on small groups of children with similar barriers, targeting specific areas matched to the children’s next steps. The focus of the sessions fall into 2 sections - Language Comprehension and Word Recognition (all strands of which are made clear on the Scarborough Reading Rope Infogram - Appendix 1).

Guided reading in small groups will happen in the following years:

● Nursery - A small group, focusing on how to handle a book and beginning to talk about it when the children are ready. This might be as a planned session or in response to an “in the moment” interaction.

● Years 3-6 - All children receive at least one adult-led guided reading session a week with follow up independant comprehension work and independent reading activities. Children should also have an opportunity to read for pleasure during this time.

In Nursery, the session should be entirely made up of adult modelling and questioning followed by group discussion and or a linked experience. In summer 2, any children who are ready are to move on to more formal “reading practise” sessions, following the structure in the before mentioned sessions.

In Years 3 to 6, the following model should be used (in groups no larger than 12): *Where possible, an additional adult will do a vocabulary session prior to the teacher-led guided reading session.

1. The teacher recaps (if necessary) new and unfamiliar vocabulary from the additional adult’s previous session, that the children are to meet in the text which will support children’s understanding. Prop objects, pictures or example sentences (age and stage to inform which are used) are to be used in the development of vocabulary. Throughout the session teachers will continue to provide opportunities for children to investigate and clarify unfamiliar vocabulary. In classes where additional adults aren’t available, this vocabulary starting section must take place.

2. In the case of a new text, children are asked to make predictions and inferences based on cover, , title, picture etc. Where the children have encountered sections of the text in previous lessons, they should be asked to retrieve, clarify and or summarise ‘the story so far’ and then predict based on events told as well as story conventions. It is vital that children hear well modelled fluency, so during this section, the teacher will read the book’s blurb (if a new book) or the last read page (if the same book as last week).

3. The adult goes through the learning intention and the questions they’ll ask the children at the end. The group discusses / revises the strategies which can be used to gain further meaning from the text. For example, word meaning, retrieval, inference etc

4. Children read independently. If needed, as they are reading children write down words that they need clarifying(meaning, pronunciation etc.) and any puzzles/ questions and initial responses that they have. Whilst children are reading, the adult moves around and listens to each child individually, remodelling any misconceptions and giving them their next steps. Where reading fluency is secure, teachers will use their professional judgement as to the balance between extended dialogue to develop comprehension and the need to spend time securing reading fluency or specific issues with decoding. An extension needs to be planned for children who finish the book/ chapter before the end of this section. This does not need marking but should be used to inform the teacher of their children’s gaps and next steps.

5. Once the teacher has heard targeted children read or asked individualised assessment questions, the group comes back together to discuss the learning objective and questions shared earlier, as well as any misconceptions, independent responses and new words picked up during the individual reading time.

In KS2, teachers have the freedom to have 4 slightly larger groups in guided reading to allow for the fifth day to be dedicated to a shared read.

We expect a high level of adult to pupil and pupil to pupil interactions / discussions throughout the session in any year group in both reading practise and guided reading.

Shared Reading

The purpose of shared reading (within the English lesson, as part of wider thematic work or a Friday reading session at the end of 4 days of guided reading) is to further guide and support the children’s comprehension skills, support them in becoming increasingly expressive and fluent readers, as well as developing their work ethic with reading within a larger group. When planning for a shared reading opportunity, the teacher will pitch the text above the majority of those in the class as the expectation is that the teacher will be modelling the reading process to the whole class, as an expert reader, providing a high level of support and instruction. Teaching objectives are pre-planned and sessions are characterised by explicit teaching of specific reading/comprehension strategies, oral response and high levels of collaboration. The texts selected are quality texts which reflect the programmes of study and link often with our wider thematic curriculum.

When shared reading is done on a Friday after 4 days of guided reading, the first three weeks of each half term will focus on poetry and the second three weeks will focus on non-fiction. The following structure will be followed:

Week 1: Unpicking the text (structure, new vocabulary, genre etc). Week 2: Discussing the text (comprehension, effect on the reader etc). Week 3: Answering questions independently and marking and remodelling together as a class.

Texts and questions for Friday’s shared reading sessions should only be used from Literacy Shed, Cracking Comprehension and Testbase.

Art and Comprehension Sessions

At least once a half term Years 1 to 6 will have a comprehension session linked to a piece of art. For Years 3-6, this can take place during a Friday whole class shared

session and for Years 1-2, this can take place during a Book Time session. The sessions will focus on the comprehension skills; retrieval, summarising and making inferences.

One to One Reading.

One to One reading should be carried out in all year groups from Reception to Year 6. In Nursery this should commence when a child is ready.

One to one reading is an opportunity for the precision teaching of reading, enabling teachers to assess children’s individual needs and give them targeted next steps. Regular one to one reading also supports building reading stamina. One to one reading time should be prioritised first thing in the morning as soon as the children start coming into school.

In Years Reception to Year 2, all children should be heard to read one to one at least twice a week, with at least one of these reads being completed by the class teacher. Specific target children should be heard more often where teacher assessment identifies the need. Every effort should be made to support parents and carers to read one to one with their pupils daily. Teachers should maintain records of one to one reading to ensure all pupils access it. 

In Years 3 to 6, all children should be heard to read fortnightly on a one to one basis by the class teacher. Where teachers identify children will benefit from additional (at least once a week) one to one reading sessions, they should ensure this is carried out. Teachers should maintain records of one to one reading to ensure all pupils access it. This is separate to the 1-1 coaching and reading which is done in guided reading. 

All Years from 1-6 use the time 8:45-9:05 each day to complete 1-1 reading. Other opportunities which could be used are: 

-break times (ensuring the children get an option to read during this time) -foundation subjects (ensuring that this done on a rotation basis, so that the same children aren’t missing the same foundation learning) 

-Book Time 

-assemblies 

Children in all years who are reading decodable books should be taking home a book which they can read at least 95% of the content fluently. During 1-1 reading sessions, the member of staff should allow the child to read at least 1 full page but no more than 2 pages, before any mistakes are picked up and discussed. 

Where one to one reading sessions are delivered by staff other than the teacher, it is still the responsibility of the teacher to ensure sessions are of a high standard and that the children are accessing a book at the correct level. 

In all year groups, from Reception to Year 6, reading records must be filled out by the staff hearing the child read and include the following information: -date the reading takes place on (to monitor how often the reading takes place) -title of the book (so the adult knows which book the child is reading) -book level (so the adult knows which level to get when changing the book) -pages read (so the next adult knows which page to continue from) -next steps comment (so the next adult knows what to work on)

-signed by the adult hearing the child read (to monitor how often each adult reads with the child) 

Promoting Reading for Pleasure - Making Children Value Reading and Love Books. Reading for pleasure should be an explicit whole school aspect of the reading curriculum at Medlock in order for our pupils to see the value of reading. At the heart of this the pupils need to see the staff at all levels as readers in order to promote a lifelong love of reading. Aspects need to be clear within our school environment and our approaches to reading beyond English and Guided Reading lessons.

Reading Corners

All classes from Nursery to Year 6 should have a reading corner where reading for pleasure can take place. The purpose of a reading corner/or space is to allow the children to have a safe, secure and quiet space where they can read purely for pleasure and feel that they can read alone or with friends, without an adult being present. A place where it is absolutely evident to all that reading is valued and celebrated. Each class from Nursery to Year 6 should have a space that is inviting and comfortable. All classes from Nursery to Year 6 need to have a reading corner which is inviting to children and encourages reading for pleasure as well as containing books which vary in decoding and comprehension level to suit all abilities and a range of genres to suit all interests. All classrooms should have the following in their reading corners:

-Photographs modelling how the reading corner should be used (Nursery to Year 6) -A range of genres and text levels to suit all individual interests and needs (Nursery to Year 6)

-”Reader of the Week” celebration (Nursery to Year 6)

-Book Review Display (Nursery)

-Book Review Book (Reception to Year 6)

-Key vocabulary (Reception to Year 6)

-Book recommendations (Reception to Year 6)

-Questions and book talk prompts (Year 1 to 6)

“Book Time”.

The purpose of a story time / class novel is to provide a platform in which children can immerse themselves in a story. In this way, they are provided with a greater drive to engage with their own reading. Secondary to this, it’s an opportunity for them to hear high quality, fluent reading from an expressive reader. As they are not being asked to decode themselves, they can be exposed to high level, complex vocabulary in a non-threatening context. It can also provide another opportunity for children to work on their comprehension skills in a less pressurised context, purely through discussion. Such discussions also support the development of oracy and hearing and using a wider variety of academic language.

“Book Time” should take place in all years from Nursery to Year 6 and last at least 15 minutes. Nursery to Year 2 should receive at least two “Book Time” sessions a day and KS2 at least one session a day. Teachers should be mindful that a range of fiction, non-fiction and poetry is used during ”Book Time”.

School Environment

The school environment needs to reflect our drive on reading and promote reading for pleasure. This needs to go beyond what we offer in our reading corners but how we promote and show a love of books in our classrooms; in the corridors; the outside environment and in all assemblies. As well as how we support the children to make links between books (both fiction and non-fiction) and the wider curriculum.

The single most important factor in shaping the school environment is how the adults engage with books and promote reading. All adults should speak about books and stories with enthusiasm, continually promoting books and creating a culture of books

being ‘high value’ items that the children want to have access to. This should not only be in relation to the content of the books but adults should consistently model how to handle and store books whilst holding children to account for their own treatment of ‘precious resources’ that are ‘for all to share’.

Classrooms beyond the Reading Corner

Classrooms need to be a purposeful ‘text rich’ environment in order to support all the pupils to value and see the importance of reading. This should include:

● Having a range of texts (fiction and non-fiction) linked to wider areas of the year group’s curriculum.

● Key vocabulary with definitions (where applicable) clearly displayed for all curriculum areas as well as ‘wow’ words brought to learning by the children. ● Front covers of books you have read as a class displayed (reading rivers/ reading webs/ reading maps).

● A displaying celebrating how books link to each other (Year 1 to Year 6). ● Anything else that the teachers feel promotes reading and the valuing of books.

Shared spaces

Shared spaces around school should also show a love of reading and the importance of a language and text rich environment. This should include:

● Reading maps - where class novels/ English book studies are set or where the authors are from. This can also include maps of fantasy realms.

● Teachers / school leaders as readers - what teaching staff are reading. ● Parental engagement - books parents love and are reading, pictures / text etc.

Promoting Books

Adults at all levels should seek every opportunity to involve children in discussions about books and reading. These conversations should be built into everyday practice and be both formal and informal. Strategies should include:

● The use of seesaw to promote books that you think the children would like to read.

● Adults sharing what they are reading / being ‘caught’ reading. ● Teaching staff demonstrating their enthusiasm about literature and encouraging enthusiasm in their classes about children’s literature. This should include having a

knowledge of their children’s tastes and preferences and be able to match books to them.

● Where children enthuse about a book, adults should make the effort to read it in order to discuss and demonstrate the children’s opinions are valid. ● Making story time a highlight of the day - consider the setting and how it is made special at these times. This could include certain routines or rituals to make that the special time has arrived like specific costumes, props, lighting etc. ● Ambassadors of reading who are available to offer knowledge / recommend books to other children and staff.

Communication and support for parents.

It is essential that all parents and carers are kept informed of all of the learning linked to reading which their child is exposed to in school. This will be done formally during the two parents meetings each year and through the end of year report. Less formally, workshops are run throughout the school year for parents to attend so they can see first hand how reading is taught in school and how they can support their child at home. In addition to this, Reception and Year 1 should run a workshop to focus on how phonics is taught, Years 2 and 6 should run a workshop around March/April to go through what reading looks like during the SATs tests and Year 1 should run a workshop about the phonics screening around April/ May time.

To ensure full engagement, workshops should be run at times that ensure working parents are able to access them.

Each class (Nursery when the children are ready) from Reception to Year 6 should send home a reading record along with the books the children are reading for parents to sign when they’ve read the book. Parents should be encouraged to write a comment about how their child reads but this is not imperative as a parent’s own literacy skills need to be taken into consideration - something as simple as a smiley face or even the child signing the record themselves is sufficient. Where appropriate, notes to parents about specific reading targets can be communicated via the reading record.

Each week staff should upload a short video of them reading a short picture book/ chapter of a novel on to Seesaw. This allows children to receive another reading for pleasure session as well as having a good quality book session modelled to parents.

Each Friday, 2 bags will be sent home with 2 different children who have displayed good reading behaviours and/or effort in their reading sessions. The first is a “reading bag” which contains a book, teddy, hot chocolate, biscuits, a diary to fill in and any other treats which the class teacher wishes to add for the child to share with their family. The second is an “experience bag” which contains a soft toy, a list of free activities and venues in Manchester and a diary to fill in about how they spent their weekend. Both bags promote quality time together as a family, as well as reading at home and opportunities to make links between books and knowledge of the world.

Books sent home.

Each child from Nursery to Year 2 should be sent home with a free choice library book. This is in addition to their reading book which is matched to their Little Wandle/ phonics

level. The library book may not match their phonics level / decoding ability but they will have picked it themselves and the purpose is to promote reading for pleasure, to allow children to experience texts which may not be covered during lessons and to provide a

sharing book to enjoy with their family. The library books will be clearly labelled so that parents, children and staff know that it is a book for families to enjoy together, not their reading book. Children should be given the opportunity to change their free choice library books at least once a week. Children in Years 3-6 should be given the choice of taking a library book as well as their AR book.

Children in Reception and KS1 should be sent home with a reading book which matches their phonics/ decoding level (reading at at least 95% fluency). Children on books from Phase 2 to Turquoise band should be guided by an adult which book to select next. Once children reach lime banded books, class teachers make the decision whether it’s appropriate to move them on to the AR (Accelerated Reader) system. It is the teacher’s responsibility to ensure that children are given opportunities to change their banded/ AR books regularly and that they’re moved up a level when appropriate as well as checking that children are reading regularly and that the book provides appropriate challenge. For any individuals in KS2 who still require a decodable book to support their phonics and decoding needs, the class teacher may make the decision to also put them on the AR system for inclusion purposes.

AR Books

Children should complete a star reader test once a half term to give them a ZPD (Zone of Proximal Development). This will give the children a range of books which they can choose from. Teachers have the freedom to half the range so that the children feel that they are making progress within each half term, for example if a child had a ZPD of 1.1-1.8 for autumn 1, the class teacher may wish to put the child on 1.1-1.4 for the first few weeks of autumn 1 and then 1.4-1.8 for the last few weeks of autumn 1. Children do have the freedom to select books lower than their ZPD if it is a book they love and wish to re-read but pupil choices should be carefully monitored by teachers to ensure that they are challenging themselves enough to make progress. Teachers should also help to guide children and make suggestions to widen children’s diet of book choices. Children should be given their AR login details so that they can complete the online tests after reading each book and if possible, time should be given in school to complete them too.

Assessment

Children are regularly assessed in all areas of reading to inform all members of staff of their next steps and to monitor progress. The follow methods of assessment should be implemented:

Appendix 1

The Scarborough Rope - The Many Strands of Reading (Scarborough 2001) 

This model compares skilled reading to a rope, which consists of many different strands that are essential for the rope (skilled reading) to come together.

Language Comprehension:

● Background Knowledge -This refers to the knowledge a reader already has about the information being read which needs to be applied in order to make sense of this new information. The knowledge about the world which children possess is, it seems, fairly crucial to them reading effectively.

● Vocabulary – This refers to the breadth of a reader’s vocabulary. Obviously the more words a reader knows in a text, the more fluent his/her reading of that text is likely to be.

● Language Structures – A reader needs at least an implicit understanding of how language is structured, that is, grammar. The debate has been about whether that knowledge needs to be explicit. Most children (and adults) sense when a sentence is not grammatically correct without being able to explain what the problem is.

● Verbal Reasoning – Readers need to be able to make inferences and construct meanings from the text: that is, they need to be able to THINK logically about what they read in they are to understand it, and its implications.

● Literacy Knowledge – Understanding the concepts of print such as reading from left to right and top to bottom, how to hold a book, and that full stops complete one sentence (unit of meaning) before the text moves on. These things do not work in the same way in other languages, so they probably need to be taught somehow to English-speaking (and reading) children.

Word Recognition:

● Phonological Awareness – This refers to the awareness a reader has of the sound systems in language, including knowledge of syllables, and sentence intonation (a rise in voice when asking a question, for example). Knowledge and experience of rhymes seems especially important in developing this

awareness.

● Decoding– This includes an understanding of the alphabetic principle - a letter of the alphabet represents a sound and that these letters/sounds can be blended together to make words. This is somewhat trickier in English than in some other languages. English has about 44 sounds (phonemes) but only 26 letters in the alphabet. Thus the relationship between letters and sounds cannot be one to one.

● Sight Recognition – Some words are recognised when reading without the reader needing to decode them: you just know them. Research tells us that, in fact, most adult reading is like this. It is quite rare for us to have to read words we have never seen before, and thus do not know. Children need to build up their repertoires of sight words and the more they can read by sight, the more efficient their reading becomes.

These “strands” all work together to enable skilled reading. The strands develop over time and with more teaching and experience. The “Word Recognition” strands become more and more automatic with practice. Fluent readers will simply not be aware of these things happening – unless they encounter a problem.

In the case of the “Language Comprehension” strands, there will be a movement towards becoming more strategic in their use. Readers will become more aware of what they are doing and more in control of it. Of course, the development of comprehension is not time-limited. We all become better, more efficient and more subtle readers as we get older, more experienced, and meet more complex texts.