Reading at Charfield

The overarching aim for English in the national curriculum is to promote high standards of language and literacy by equipping pupils with a strong command of the spoken and written word, and to develop their love of literature through widespread reading for enjoyment.

We love to read at Charfield!

Reading is essential for learning. After all, when you can read anything, you can learn everything! However, reading is so much more than accessing new knowledge. It can transport you to different times and worlds. It allows you to escape your real world for a while. Books can inspire you to be something different or try something you never would have imagined trying. Losing yourself in a book is one of life's pleasures and our most important duty is to help all our children experience this.

Our reading teaching aims to support our overarching curriculum core aims and enable children to leave Charfield school able to read effectively.

Our Reading Intent

We have designed our Reading curriculum so that our children:

Are provided with a breadth of reading opportunities across all subjects
Discover the enjoyment and escapism that reading can provide.
Enhance reading fluency, consider the impact of language and build their vocabulary, allowing them to be immersed in the wider curriculum.
Understand that reading is a life skill.
Have the opportunity to become confident, fluent readers for life –understanding inference, retrieval of information, and the author's intent.
Are exposed to high quality texts that are carefully chosen to ensure that they are age appropriate, pitched accurately to support optimum progress and provide opportunities to discover and use new and challenging vocabulary.
Develop a life-long enjoyment in reading for pleasure
Are exposed to high quality texts from a range of authors, genres and books on different topics and interests
Develop the necessary skills and strategies to become fluent and competent and expressional readers, becoming increasingly more confident and independent
Develop their comprehension skills so that they understand what is read to them
Read for meaning, enabling them to respond to texts and justify their answers
Develop their ability to retell a story or events in order, predicting what might happen next and inferring how someone feels or why something might have happened
Appreciate the work of different authors, poets and illustrators from a range of different cultures
Are exposed a wider variety of language, including story language, to develop both their oral and written skills and abilities

Click the link below see information about Reading in the CSET Concept curriculum:
/docs/Curriculum/Specific_curriculum_pdfs/Charfield_-_Reading_in_the_concept_curriculum.pdf

Our Reading Implementation

Our Reading curriculum is taught:

By encouraging early readers to respond to stories they have heard through talk and play.
Using decodable books which link directly to each child's phonics knowledge and a structured system is in place to support these books being taken home.
Encouraging a love of books for all, prior to pupils reading decodable phonics books, children can take home picture only books to share with their family.
As part of our phonics program, children are taught to use these to decode unknown words in books that are carefully matched to reflect the sounds taught and the needs of the child as soon as a child has started to learn letter sounds. These books also contain challenging vocabulary and a variety of text types which enable plenty of book talk while also supporting comprehension skills.
With regular assessment points. From Year 2, using regular assessments (e.g. STAR tests) being undertaken to enable all children to have access to books that offer an appropriate level of challenge. Reading ‘test papers’ like those used at the end of each Key Stage, are also used as a key points in the year from Year 2 onward.
Using analysis from assessments to check for gaps in learning and to inform the teaching of reading skills.
Using reading skills is incorporated within phonics sessions in Reception and Year 1
Using Reading VIPERS from Year 2 in whole class to develop comprehension and understanding of what a child reads.
So that our youngest children use phonetically decodable books that are matched directly to the child’s phonological awareness
So that the books the children read are phonetically progressive and are matched to the ZPD book banding system
So that children have the opportunity to take part in one-to-one reading with an adult and whole class reading across a variety of different curriculum areas
So that teachers share their love of reading and model reading skills at every opportunity
So that children can develop their reading fluency, and this is monitored regularly by the class teacher
So that reading comprehension is taught through the teacher using scaffolded questions which address vocabulary development and word meaning, alongside the development of deduction and inference skills
So that activities allow for children to develop skills in:
- the retelling of a story using story language
- making predictions based upon what they have read
- inferring meaning from what they have read
- being able to explain an author’s language choice and the impact of this on the reader

So that all children’s progress is monitored and evaluated closely and that additional support and intervention can be put in place for those who are struggling

Our Reading Impact

The impact of the Reading curriculum at Charfield Primary School can be see through:

Our children’s enjoyment of reading
Our children’s fluency when reading, including the use of expression
Our children’s ability to read for meaning, allowing them to retell events, make justified predictions and provide evidence-based inferences
Our children’s appreciation of a wide variety of authors and genres, and their ability to express justified preferences
Our children’s ability to discuss an author’s use of language and the impact this has on the reader
The wide vocabulary, including story language, used by the children in both their oral responses and written work
The percentage of children working at Expected level or greater across the school as shown on Target Tracker
The percentage of children working at Expected level or greater at the end of Year 2 and Year 6, when compared to local and national outcomes