Miles Coverdale Primary School

Here at Miles Coverdale, we believe that reading is at the fore front of everything that we do, which is why we have created this simple breakdown of all aspects of reading within our school.

• Reading is timetabled daily across the school through various forms such as shared reading, guided reading, and independent reading.
• Each of our classrooms has a reading corner where pupils can sit comfortably during the day to read a book.  Books are rotated regularly by staff to match the class topic and pupils’ interests. The area is resourced with comics, magazines and newspapers to extend reading for pleasure, and also contains a range of culturally diverse texts that follow the concepts of ‘Mirrors and Windows’.
• We have a carefully designed, progressive curriculum, that sets high expectations for all pupils.
• Pupils have access to our local library and visit termly with their classy, to explore reading for pleasure, and expand their class reading areas with their own choices.
• We have reading buddies across classes, in which pupils from different year groups regularly get together to share books of an interest, for example Year 6 read daily with Year 1 pupils.
• Reading is celebrated in our school regularly through Gold Awards and reading events throughout the year such as World Book Day and National Poetry Day.
• We have a group of Reading Rebels, who are children from across the school, who encourage reading for pleasure and take responsibility for our outdoor reading areas.
• We have a Borrow Box in our office to encourage parental involvement with reading, as well as offering various CPD sessions across the year.
• Guided reading sessions take place in each class weekly, focusing on fluency, comprehension, grammar and vocabulary.
• Twinkl Phonics is the phonics scheme that we follow throughout the school. Phonics is taught in five 30 minute sessions per week and streamed throughout the school.
• Early reading is encouraged by providing pupils with non-worded reading books in the first instance. Once they have developed their phonics and decoding skills they are then moved on to texts that match their phonic ability and are fully decodable. After this, pupils move to levelled readers, which are monitored across all classes within the school, and finally pupils move to ‘Free Readers’ when appropriate.
• We use reading records that pupils and parents complete regularly, to monitor what pupils are reading at home, and to ensure we can provide extra provision for those not reading on a daily basis.

• All staff are expert readers, modelling reading skills, discussing texts read with the pupils and sharing their own love of reading.
• Teachers read class stories to promote a love and enjoyment of stories, immersing them in the world of imagination.
• We have multiple areas around the school dedicated to reading, to enable pupils to pick up a book, whenever they feel it appropriate.
• Our learning opportunities incorporate a range of fiction, non-fiction and poetry, to expose pupils to different texts they may enjoy.
• Guided reading sessions allow time for pupils to discuss their reading, helping them to make sense of what they have read. 
• Pupils are encouraged to access the library and change books on a regular basis.  This is in addition to their daily reading book.
• We encourage pupils in each class to share their love of reading eg by inviting them to recommend great reads to their peers; attend book swaps and making bookmarks for the books they have read.
• For World Book Day we celebrate reading for the entire week, encompassing a range of activities from sponsored reads, to guest speaker’s coming and reading to each class, or in assembly.

• Phonics is taught following the progression of sounds, through the Twinkl Phonics scheme, to ensure a systematic approach. Phonics lessons follow the same sequence across the week. Planning includes assessment for the graphemes taught. Phonics is assessed when each level comes to an end, to identify gaps in learning to inform future planning and intervention.
• Each class has 1 hour of guided reading each week. Which may be split up across, depending on each class’s timetable. Each pupil has at least one guided reading session per week. The sessions are well-structured and provide opportunity for pupils to read independently, as part of a group which is adult led and to develop comprehension skills. 
• The school supports pupils to be expert readers by developing the key skills of clarifying, questioning, explaining, retrieval, summarising and predicting.
  -Clarifying: understanding and explaining what we have read including new vocabulary
  -Questioning: ensuring we understand and checking others do too.
  -Explaining: developing an understanding of inference and deduction
  -Retrieval: using and finding evidence in the text.
  -Summarising and sequencing: identifying the main points of the text by recapping prior reading, scanning and using key words.
  -Predicting: Using the knowledge of what we have read to make predictions about forthcoming events or actions in a story
• There is a clear progression of reading skills from Reception to Year 6 against which pupils’ progress is measured and gaps are noted and acted on.
• Pupils who are struggling with decoding skills (preventing them from accessing reading material) have targeted interventions or are part of a smaller reading group.  Targeted intervention follows the Twinkl Phonics programme.
• Pupils who need further opportunity to practise reading because they do not read at home, are given priority to read to an adult in school. Class teachers ensure volunteers, who come into school to hear readers, are trained to support reading appropriately.
• Staff have pupil progress meetings and the English Co-ordinators complete pupil conferencing in reading.
• We assist parents with supporting reading by providing parents meetings, reading information meetings, information on the website and letters home.

Phonics teaching begins with our youngest pupils from the time they join us in Reception. Level 1 is promoted and embedded within the curriculum, exposing pupils to sound rich activities which provide the foundations for reading and writing. We complete baseline assessments in communication, language and literacy to support and identify speech, language and communication needs.

Pupils begin learning letter sounds on entry to Reception. Following the Twinkl Phonics Scheme, pupils are immersed in a directed teaching approach which embeds systematic phonics skills as the core skills for reading. Sounds are taught in a specific order, and regular assessment informs future planning and interventions. We also stream our phonics sessions across the school, which enables us to target gaps in learning, and move forward with interventions when necessary.

Phonics teaching begins with our youngest pupils from the time they join us in Little Learners. Phase 1 is promoted and embedded within the curriculum, exposing pupils to sound rich activities which provide the foundations for reading and writing. We complete baseline assessments in communication, language and literacy to support and identify speech, language and communication needs.

Pupils begin learning letter sounds on entry to Reception. Following the Phonics Play system pupils are immersed in a directed teaching approach which embeds systematic phonics skills as the core skills for reading. Sounds are taught in a specific order, and regular assessment informs future planning and interventions. We also stream our phonics sessions across the school, which enables us to target gaps in learning, and move forward with interventions when necessary.

• Summative data is submitted once a term and pupil progress analysis is taken from this. Pupils identified by class teachers and in pupil progress meetings as not making progress have interventions planned for them and teaching staff are aware of who is a priority for intervention/support.
• Formative data informs day-to-day planning and teachers adapt and change this according the pupil needs.
• Pupils who did not achieve their phonics check receive interventions (daily reader/extra phonics support) and/or work in a group which is teacher driven.
• Where progress becomes a concern, parents are invited to a meeting with the teacher and advice is given as to how they can further support their child at home.

• Teaching staff, including Support Staff receive reading and phonics training as and when required. This may be a specific focus on the phonics programme or a personal target identified in performance management or specific training identified by staff. This may include in-house training or external training depending on the needs of the staff.
• Subject lead feeds back any relevant training during weekly level and staff meetings.
• Subject lead has led in-house training for the Reciprocal Reading strategy used in school, as well as yearly phonics refresher sessions.

Here at Miles Coverdale, we understand the importance of parents/carers involvement in supporting their pupils with reading in a variety of ways. Reading aloud regularly to your child helps improve vocabulary/understanding but also gives your child the opportunity to slow down, connect and share an enjoyable activity!

Parent/Carer Reading/Phonics workshops
We run Reading/Phonics workshops where parents/carers can learn about how pupils are taught in school and receive specific information regarding how they can support their child at home.

Reading Café
This is a friendly informal session where parents/carers can come along and talk to a variety of teachers about any concerns they have about their pupil’s reading whilst enjoying a cup of tea/coffee. Free resources are available at this café and parents are signposted to helpful apps/websites that could help their child.

Comment from Parent (Reading Cafe)
“I would like to say thank you for supporting us as parents with useful information/websites and ideas on how to help our children at home”

Reading Top Tips
Please do look at the bottom of this English Curriculum page which includes ‘Helpful documents for parents and carers. Some of these tips are from ‘Family Reading Partnership Website’  Do have a look on their website for exciting Reading challenges and a recommended Reading Aloud Book List under the Resources section. www.familyreading.org

Useful Websites
Please see some suggested websites below that can support parents with the pronunciation of letter sounds and phonics/reading.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCI2mu7URBc (How to pronounce sounds (Oxford Owl)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyiT8CP1M5A  (Mr Thorne does Phonics (focus on each sound)