Share This Page

Reading

Reading at Loughborough

We are committed to ensuring each pupil has the opportunity to reach their full potential, regardless of their starting points. We are proud to be part of a diverse community and be a home to many children for whom English is an additional language.

At Loughborough Primary School we aim for every child to be able to:

read with confidence, fluency and understanding
have an interest in books and read for enjoyment
have an interest in words, their meaning and developing a growing vocabulary in spoken and written forms

understand a range of text types and genres
develop the power of imagination, inventiveness and critical awareness

Early reading skills

Phonics

At Loughborough Primary School we believe that all our children can become fluent readers and writers. It is essential that our approach to teaching phonics and reading is accessible to all learners, regardless of their background. We teach reading through Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised, which is a systematic and synthetic phonics programme. We start teaching phonics in Nursery and follow the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised progression, which ensures children build on their growing knowledge of the alphabetic code, mastering phonics to read and spell as they move through school.

Foundations for phonics in Nursery

We provide a balance of child-led and adult-led experiences for all children that meet the curriculum expectations for ‘Communication and language’ and ‘Literacy’.
We ensure Nursery children are well prepared to begin learning grapheme-phoneme correspondences (GPCs) and blending in Reception.

Daily phonics lessons in Reception and Year 1

We teach phonics for 30 minutes a day. In Reception, we build from 10-minute lessons, with additional daily oral blending games, to full-length lessons as quickly as possible. Each Friday, we review the week’s teaching to help children become fluent readers.
Children make a strong start in Reception: teaching begins in Week 2 of the Autumn term.
- We follow the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised expectations of progress: Children in Reception are taught to read and spell words using Phase 2 and 3 GPCs, and words with adjacent consonants (Phase 4) with fluency and accuracy.
- Children in Year 1 review Phase 3 and 4 and are taught to read and spell words using Phase 5 GPCs with fluency and accuracy.

Keep-up sessions ensure every child learns to read

Any child who needs additional practice has Keep-up sessions, taught by a fully trained adult. Keep-up lessons match the structure of class teaching, and use the same procedures, resources and mantras, but in smaller steps with more repetition, so that every child secures their learning.

Teaching reading: Reading practice sessions three times a week

We teach children to read through reading practice sessions three times a week. Each reading practice session has a clear focus, so that the demands of the session do not overload the children’s working memory.

Approaches to Reading Year 2 – 6: Guided and Shared Reading:

VIPERS

Children are explicitly taught the skills of reading (outlined in the National Curriculum and the KS1 and KS2 test domains) through the use of VIPERS which were created by Rob Smith (The Literacy Shed). VIPERS is an acronym for the reading skills taught (Vocabulary, Inference, Predict, Explain, Retrieve and Sequence/ Summarise).

Shared Guided Reading

20 – 30 minutes a day is allocated to Guided Reading. Pupil’s reading skills are taught and practised using VIPERS during whole class reading sessions. Reading VIPERS are used by both KS1 and KS2 with a little adaption. The main difference being in Key Stage 1 children learn how to sequence and in Key stage 2 this is developed and children learn how to summarise. This is a whole class approach to teaching reading skills; comprehension skills are explicitly taught to the pupils in these sessions.

Texts are carefully selected by the Literacy lead. The class teacher then leads whole class discussions through strategic questioning to engage all ability groups. The teacher reads extracts of the text to model a high standard of reading then children are selected to read aloud, repeat sections or engage in choral reading.

Reading Intervention

Extra reading is timetabled for children who have been identified as reluctant readers or working below age related expectation levels.

Independent Reading/ Table Top Books

At all stages, pupils are encouraged to read for enjoyment. KS2 pupils are encouraged to keep an extended chapter book that they could read at any point of the school day, in an accessible place.

School Library

Each class has regular access to the school library to read quietly, undertake research projects or to borrow books. There are a wide range of genres and bi-lingual books available, these are used to develop pupils’ cultural capital.

Reading enrichment

We value reading for pleasure and work hard as a school to grow our Reading for Pleasure pedagogy. We have identified a core set of ‘Reading Enrichment texts’ to read aloud to each year group every day. We choose these books carefully as we want children to experience a wide range of books, including books that reflect the children at Loughborough Primary School and our local community as well as books that open doors into other worlds and cultures.

Home Reading

Throughout the school, children are expected to carry with them in their book bags, a reader and reading record book. It is expected that they will read to an adult at home. Fluent readers may complete a task in their reading records, read and record a summary of what they have read independently.

READING INTENT

At Loughborough Primary School, our goal is to nurture and inspire our children to take their place in the world as fulfilled global citizens. We believe that literacy and communication are key life skills needed for each pupil to achieve this. Through the English curriculum, we are committed to helping children develop the skills and knowledge that will enable them to communicate effectively and creatively through spoken and written language.

At Loughborough Primary School we aim for every child to be able to:

read and write with confidence, fluency and understanding
use core texts that stimulate discussion about the world around us and enable us to promote a love of learning through real life and engaging experiences
have an interest in words, their meaning and developing a growing vocabulary in spoken and written forms
understand a range of text types and genres- to be able to write in a variety of styles and forms appropriate to the situation
be developing the power of imagination, inventiveness and critical awareness

We have built our curriculum around high quality texts and value the importance of language acquisition. Our strong focus on speech and language development allows children to access the EYFS curriculum and in turn make excellent progress towards reaching a Good Level of Development at the end of Early Years.

We place a high premium on the ability to deepen and develop a pupils’ sense of their place in the world and their understanding of social justice, in order that may develop their autonomy. We dedicate time and resource to helping pupil’s understand how literature can serve as a vehicle for social change.

READING IMPLEMENTATION

In the Early Years, children are taught to read through Letters and Sounds which is a phonics resource published by the Department for Education and Skills. It aims to build children's speaking and listening skills in their own right as well as to prepare children for learning to read by developing their phonic knowledge and skills. It sets out a detailed and systematic programme for teaching phonic skills for children starting by the age of five, with the aim of them becoming fluent readers by age seven.

As outlined in the DFE Development Matters guidelines It is crucial for children to develop a life-long love of reading. Reading consists of two dimensions: language comprehension and word reading. Language comprehension is developed when adults talk with children about the world around them and the books (stories and non-fiction) they read with them, and enjoy rhymes, poems and songs together. Skilled word reading, is exposed in the Nursery and taught more thoroughly in Reception, this involves both the speedy working out of the pronunciation of unfamiliar printed words (decoding) and the speedy recognition of familiar printed words.

Approaches to Reading- Guided and Shared Reading:

VIPERS:

The Reading VIPERS is used by both KS1 and KS2 with a little adaption. The main difference being in Key Stage 1 children learn how to sequence and in Key stage 2 this is developed and children learn how to summarise.

In KS1, ‘Explain’; is not one of the content domains, rather it asks children why they have come to a certain conclusion, to explain their preferences, thoughts and opinions about a text.

In KS2, the Explain section covers the additional content domains of 2F, 2G and 2H which are not present in KS1. (See appendix)

Lessons may vary session to session/ class to class depending on the needs of the children but as a general rule time spent on each VIPER is based upon the English Reading Test Framework (2016) and the number of marks available for each content domain. This can be adapted based on the teacher’s judgement and the areas of development in each class.

Guided Reading:

20 – 30 minutes a day is allocated to Guided Reading. This may take place first thing in the morning or immediately after lunch, as determined by the Senior Leadership Team. Our core reading scheme is Big Cats Reading which is supplemented by a wide variety of other reading materials including novels, plays, poems, and non-fiction books. The carousel method of completing various reading activities is adopted by KS1 and Lower KS2 classes. Children reading skills are taught and practised using the VIPERS during these reading sessions.

Shared Reading:

This is a whole class approach to teaching reading skills. In Key Stage Two pupil’s reading skills are taught and practised using VIPERS during whole class reading sessions. Texts are carefully selected by teachers, who then leads whole class discussions through strategic questioning to engage all ability groups. Comprehension skills are explicitly taught to the pupils in these sessions.

Reading Intervention:

Extra reading is timetabled for children who have been identified as reluctant readers or working below age related expectation levels. These extra reading sessions are 1:1 with the class Teacher, TA or reading volunteers who come to school on a weekly basis.

Independent Reading/ Table Top Books:

At all stages, pupils are encouraged to read for enjoyment. KS2 pupils are encouraged to keep an extended chapter book that they could read at any point of the school day, in an accessible place

School Library:

Each class has regular access to the school library to read quietly, undertake research projects or to borrow books.
There is a wide range of genres and bi-lingual books available used to encourage cultural capital. Having a central library in addition to the class book corners ensures more children have access to a wider variety of texts throughout the day. Children are able to take these books home, aiding our effort to encourage children to read for pleasure.

Whole Class Reading:

Teachers are encouraged to read daily to their children. This may include a longer text in the upper classes and shorter stories in the lower classes. Provision of this activity is left to individual teachers to time –table and execute..

READING IMPACT

Pupils are regularly assessed against the National Curriculum attainment targets. This assessment informs teacher’s planning.

Assessment may be:

Formative –observation, questioning, participation in discussion, marking of written work, self and peer assessment, shared learning intention and success criteria.

In the Early Years, observations are continuously carried out and assessed against the Early Learning Goals.

Summative – Formal assessment of Reading takes place once a term and children’s progress and attainment can be tracked using the school’s internal system of assessment; SIMS.

Pupils complete activities in their guided/shared reading sessions focusing on different reading skills. The responses to these tasks are used as an assessment tool to track pupils understanding.

The Big Cat online assessment tool is used at the beginning of the term to determine the reading level of each child on the reading intervention list, highlighting areas of development, then used again in each sequential term to track progress being made.

NTS assessment tests are carried out each term to identify the children’s current level and leaders at all levels use this to carry out gap analysis tasks. From this SHINE interventions are created to target identified areas for development.

The Senior Leadership Team (SLT) also conduct pupil progress meetings with class teachers termly to identify which pupils may require additional support, suitable groupings, interventions and the deployment of adult support is agreed in an effort to raise standards in Literacy.