Reading

Intent

At Desford Community Primary School, our intent for reading is to foster a lifelong love of literature that promotes a deep understanding of reading as a critical life skill. We aim to equip all our students with the ability to decode, comprehend, and critically engage with texts, ensuring they are prepared for success in all areas of their education and beyond.

Our reading curriculum is carefully designed to:

• Promote fluency and comprehension: We want every child to read confidently and fluently, with a focus on understanding and engaging critically with a range of genres and texts to support strong vocabulary development.
• Cultivate a passion for reading: By providing access to a diverse array of texts, we endeavour to spark pupils’ interest and encourage a culture of reading for pleasure both in and out of school.
• Support inclusivity: Our reading strategies and resources are tailored to meet the needs of each child, ensuring that all learners – regardless of their starting points – can thrive and enjoy success in reading

Implementation

To meet our intent, we implement a robust and structured reading programme that is embedded across the school. This comprises the following key elements:

• Systematic Phonics Programme: We utilise the ‘Little Wandle Letters & Sounds’ phonics scheme to support early readers. Daily phonics sessions are delivered consistently across EYFS/Y1, ensuring that all children develop their decoding skills effectively. Daily phonics/reading groups – using Little Wandle materials – take place between 9-9:30 a.m. for children in Years 2-6 who still have phonics as a gap. All staff are trained to deliver phonics sessions with fidelity to the strategies of the scheme.
• Diverse Reading Materials: Our reading curriculum includes a selection of fiction and non-fiction texts (including poetry) that reflects the diverse and multicultural life in modern Britain. Our core texts (which are read aloud daily) – for each year group – also reflect our desire to be an inclusive school. Texts used for whole-class reading sessions also make links with contemporary events (such as International Women’s Day, Black History Month, etc.), as well as wider curriculum subjects. (See LTP)
• Whole-Class Reading Lessons: From Years 2-6, reading lessons are taught 4x per week and compromise of daily fluency strategies, explicit teaching of reading strategies (including POP weeks that use a mix of skills), with the use of graphical organisers to develop reading comprehension. Each strategy is explicitly modelled using the ‘I do, We do, You do’ approach and learning tasks are scaffolded to enable all children to succeed. (See Lesson Structure WCR)

• Fluency strategies are built up throughout the week:
• Read to (teacher modelled)
• Read with (choral reading)
• Read after (echo reading)
• Read together (cloze reading, i.e. fill in the gaps)
• Read alone (paired/individual reading)
• Reading for Pleasure Initiatives: We foster a love for reading through various initiatives such as author/storyteller visits annually, themed book days/afternoons, and book fairs twice a year. Our well-resourced library, that is visited weekly, offers a welcoming space for students to discover new texts. Half-termly reading newsletters are sent out to update children and parents on new book releases, book news and recommended reads for each year group. Accelerated Reader is used from Y2-6 to ensure that books are matched to children’s reading ability and to ensure children are understanding books they are reading. ‘Word millionaires’ are celebrated and children are encouraged to read at home with half-termly reading raffles – with winners from each class receiving a £5 National Book Tokens voucher.
• Regular Assessment and Targeted Intervention: We use a range of formative and summative assessments to monitor progress, such as termly NFERs, STAR quizzes, PM Benchmarking and Little Wandle assessments. Through careful analysis, we identify students who may require additional support and implement targeted interventions to ensure they are provided with the necessary resources and strategies to improve their reading skills.
• Training and Development: Continuous professional development for staff is essential. We regularly provide training on effective reading strategies, including the importance of fostering a reading culture and successful techniques for whole-class reading. Parents are also supported to develop their children’s reading with workshops led on how to support child’s reading at home and supporting children with phonics development.

Impact

The impact of our reading curriculum is evident in the following ways:

• Improved Reading Outcomes: The majority of our students achieve or exceed age-related expectations in reading by the end of Key Stage 2. Our internal assessments show consistently high levels of progress, with outcomes for 2023/24 significantly above the national average at the end of KS2.
• Enhanced Engagement: Feedback from both students and parents indicates a marked increase in students’ enthusiasm for reading. From regular pupil voice, the number of children who say that they enjoy reading and think that it is important has greatly increased.
• Increased Confidence and Independence: As a result of our tailored interventions, students demonstrate increased confidence in their reading abilities and are more willing to engage with challenging texts. They express themselves articulately about their reading choices and preferences.
• Positive School Climate: Our commitment to fostering a reading culture contributes to a positive and inclusive school climate where reading is celebrated. Students, staff, and parents actively participate in promoting reading and sharing their experiences, further solidifying our school’s ethos.