Reading at Granard

At Granard, we value reading as a key life skill.  By the time children leave Granard, they should feel confident selecting and reading a wide range of texts and enjoy reading regularly for pleasure.  Our readers are equipped with the tools to tackle unfamiliar vocabulary and material.  Children enjoy participating in book talk, including evaluating authors’ use of language and how this can affect the reader.

How we teach reading (EYFS and KS1)

From Reception, children are taught to read using phonics.  Children follow the Read Write Inc. (RWI) phonics scheme.  At the end of Year 1, children take part in a statutory national Phonics Screening Check.  If children do not pass the phonics check in Year 1, they will need to re-sit the test at the end of Year 2.  Once children have graduated from the RWI scheme, they take part in Guided Comprehension lessons.  At the end of Year 2, children sit a KS1 Reading SAT to assess their reading comprehension.

Phonics

Phonics is taught using synthetic phonics.  

In Nursery, children explore and experiment with different sounds and words, distinguish between the sounds in the environment and letter sounds and learn about rhyme and alliteration.  

In Reception, children learn approximately one sound a day.  They are also introduced to ‘tricky words’.  As each new sound/word is taught, the children continually revise and practise previous sounds.  They learn to blend these sounds in order to read words.  As they become confident in identifying the individual sounds within words, they begin to segment words into sounds in order to write whole words.  They also learn alternative spellings for some vowel sounds (Set 2).

In Year 1 and 2, children learn remaining sounds (Set 3) and revise previously taught phonemes (sounds) and graphemes (ways of writing the sounds).  They also learn prefixes, suffixes and common exception words.  Discrete phonics lessons are taught to groups of children of similar ability.

Reading lessons take place daily in Reception and Key Stage One.  Groups are reviewed half termly.

How we teach reading (KS2)

Reading is taught through Guided Comprehension.  Guided Comprehension focuses on four key reading skills – predicting, clarifying, summarising and questioning – as well as visualising, connecting and evaluating.  Quality texts are selected to hook the children into each half term’s topic. 

We have a number of reading enrichment activities, including:

• Celebrations for Book Week that include visits to Waterstones to exchange World Book Day book tokens
• Visits from authors
• A well-resourced library and visits to Roehampton Library
• Reading for pleasure is promoted through what the class are reading and what the adults are reading (e.g. the teacher, the TA and the reading volunteers).
• A wonderful army of reading volunteers that come into school on a weekly basis

In addition, 1:1 or small group reading is put into place for children that need extra practice or for children who are not currently meeting their target. 

Reading at home

In Nursery, reading for pleasure is strongly promoted and each child is provided with a high quality text to take home and share with their parents. 

In Reception and Key Stage One, the children take home ‘learning to read’ books and reading for pleasure books.  The book they take home is matched to their phonics knowledge and reading ability.  These books are changed regularly.  Children are questioned about what they have read and comments are made in their reading records.  The reading records keep a log of the books the children have read.  Reading records are also used to ensure that all children are being heard read at home on a regular basis.  Parents, reading volunteers and staff are expected to comment in the reading record.

In Key Stage Two, there is a book corner in every classroom and a library that is accessible to all. We use Accelerated Reader to keep track of pupil reading levels and progress.  Pupils take Star Reading tests to decide which books are most appropriate.  After reading a book, pupils take a quiz about the book.  These two forms of assessment give the teachers regular progress measures.

Useful  English Links

   Free eBooks to support children's learning.

      Free online books and videos

     CBeebies Radio Story Time