English - Reading

“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.” Matthew 7:24

Just as the wise builder chose to build his house on solid foundations, so a well-lived, successful life requires solid foundations.   Through our curriculum, we aim to give our children the knowledge and skills - the foundations - they need to become fulfilled, loving adults in their world,

At Netheravon All Saints, we value reading as a key life skill and are dedicated to enabling our pupils to become confident, fluent readers.

We want our pupils to develop a love of reading, a good knowledge of a range of authors, and to be able to understand more about the world in which they live through the knowledge they gain from a wide variety of texts. By the end of Year 6, all pupils in our school should be able to read fluently and with confidence in any subject at secondary school. We believe that with the right support, excellent teaching and high expectations, all children are capable of achieving their full potential in reading. We understand the important role that parents and carers play in supporting their children to develop both word reading and comprehension skills, and so work hard to develop strong partnerships that enable parents and carers to understand how to enhance the skills being taught in school.

Click here to see our Reading Policy 

​Annex A - Reading Across the School

Intent

At NAS, we value reading as a key life skill and are dedicated to enabling all our pupils to become confident, fluent readers. We want our pupils to develop a love of reading, a good knowledge of a range of authors, and to be able to understand more about the world beyond our village through the knowledge they gain from a wide variety of texts. By the end of Year 6, all pupils in our school should be able to read fluently and with confidence in any subject at secondary school. Similarly, those children who belong to military families should be able, if necessary, to move between schools as confident, enthusiastic readers. We believe that with the right support, excellent teaching and high expectations, all children are capable of achieving their full potential in reading. We understand the important role that parents and carers play in supporting their children to develop both word reading and comprehension skills, and so work hard to develop strong partnerships that enable parents and carers to understand how to enhance the skills being taught in school.

Implementation

At NAS, we recognise the three stages of learning to read as follows:

• Decoding – through phonics learning in FS2/KS1 extending into KS2 where necessary
• Comprehension – through teaching and practising the skills needed to understand a text
• Broadening – through intertextual links, cultural capital, debate and discussion

The Role of Phonics

At NAS, we recognise that a systematic approach to the teaching of phonics plays a key role in developing fluent readers. Throughout Reception and Key Stage 1, children are taught phonics on a daily basis. Where necessary and appropriate, this teaching continues into Key Stage 2 to enable children to fill any gaps in their learning.

The teaching of phonics is complemented by reading schemes that closely match children’s developing phonic knowledge, thus enabling them to develop their fluency in line with their phonic knowledge.

We understand that developing phonic knowledge is only one skill in becoming a confident and competent reader.  Starting in Reception, children are supported to develop their understanding about what they have either listened to or read. Teachers consistently model a range of reading strategies which support children to read with fluency and a depth of understanding.

The Teaching of Reading

All teachers at our school strive to be expert and inspiring teachers of reading, and we all share the drive to create the best possible opportunities for our pupils to achieve. Approaches to the teaching of reading are regularly monitored and reviewed to ensure that we are providing the right teaching for our children, and regular CPD allows teachers’ expertise to develop.

At our school, reading is taught daily and is based on a thorough understanding of the National Curriculum and the needs of the children. Once children have mastered phonics, the emphasis moves on to developing their ability to understand what they are reading through the teaching of skills such as fluency, retrieval, sequencing, prediction and inference, and enabling them to demonstrate what they have learnt through explanation and summary. Teachers prepare and deliver lessons in fiction, non-fiction and poetry, and school uses either a group or whole class approach depending on year group and need. Reading is taught with a fully inclusive approach, with an emphasis on high quality first teaching. Where necessary, catch-up provision is made to ensure that no child falls behind.

Children move on from fully phonetically decodable reading books as soon as they are reading these fluently with the full range of taught phonics. They then follow a progressive reading scheme which allows them to develop their reading stamina and skills through a structured programme of increasing challenge. Children are also encouraged to select their own reading material from books available in school or elsewhere to read alongside their scheme texts.

Children’s progress in reading is assessed by teachers on an ongoing basis through individual tracking and targeted questioning during lessons. We use standardised reading tests during the year to provide a summative assessment of children’s attainment and to allow for future planning.

A more detailed breakdown of the teaching of reading across the school can be found at Annex A.

High Quality Texts

At NAS, we believe firmly that children should have access to high quality texts that will challenge and inspire them while also enabling them to develop the skills described above. As well as the core texts selected for our reading curriculum, we have developed our own reading spine: texts that children hear regularly as part of story time. The reading spine has been carefully created through research and consultation with children and colleagues, and is intended to broaden our children’s horizons beyond our rural locality. Non-fiction texts and poetry are included in the spine.

Developing a Love of Reading

At NAS we strongly believe that alongside our provision for the teaching of reading, it is also our role to help children to develop a love of reading itself. Encouraging children to read for pleasure supports their development into a ‘lifelong learner’ capable of the very best outcomes. This is achieved through a range of approaches, including:

• Daily sessions where the teacher reads aloud to the class;
• The provision of a library where children can borrow books, carry out research and take on the role of student librarians;
• The provision of a book corner in each classroom giving the children the opportunity to supplement their scheme readers with books they have chosen themselves;
• Special events such as sponsored reads, author visits and participation in initiatives such as World Book Day;
• Adults in school consistently modelling enthusiasm for reading, sharing what they have read and engaging in conversations around books with children;
• Information events for parents where the processes and joys of learning to read can be shared with all the family.

Impact

Pupils will love reading across a range of genres, and will have the background knowledge to enable them to gain the maximum pleasure from what they are reading;

• Pupils of all abilities will be able to succeed in reading lessons;
• Pupils will have a good knowledge of a range of authors, and will have developed an ‘expert’ knowledge of texts they have studied at our school;
• Pupils’ writing skills will be enhanced through their reading;
• Pupils will be ready to read in any subject in their forthcoming secondary education; this will enable them to transfer to secondary school as confident, eager learners;
• Parents and carers will have a good understanding of how they can support reading at home, and will play a key role in ensuring their children’s progress and success in reading;
• The percentage of pupils working at Age Related Expectations within each year group will be at least in line with national averages;
• The percentage of pupils working at Greater Depth within each year group will be at least in line with national averages;
• There will be no significant gaps in the progress and attainment of different groups of children.

Reviewed January 2024