At Wellesbourne, we teach reading through a range of approaches. We are passionate about all of our children becoming fluent readers who are engaged and enthused by fiction, non-fiction and poetry. We know the importance of reading cannot be underestimated, and that it is the key to unlocking children’s potential across all areas of learning.
We teach our children to understand what they have read and link it to their own lives and experiences. We do this through teaching word recognition and comprehension skills alongside each other. Good comprehension draws from linguistic knowledge (in particular of vocabulary and grammar) and knowledge of the world. Comprehension skills develop through Pupils’ experience of high-quality discussion with the teacher, as well as from reading and discussing stories, poems and non-fiction.
In Early Years and Key Stage 1 (and children in Year 3 who did not pass the Phonics Screening Check), children have daily Phonics lessons using the Essential Letters and Sounds scheme (click for more information). We supplement this program with songs, actions, games and stories to aid memory when introducing and revisiting phoneme/grapheme correspondences as part of this multisensory approach during the first 3 phases of Letters and Sounds, and until the children are secure in using the initial alphabetic code (44 phonemes). Children increase their fluency with Phonics by taking part in Guided Reading sessions, within which they read decodable books linked to sounds they have been taught. Children will bring home a Phonics decodable book to read, as well as an Oxford Reading Tree book which enables them to practise their comprehension skills.
In June of Year 1, children will take part in the statutory Phonics Screening Check. The phonics screening check contains 40 words divided into two sections of 20 words. Both sections contain a mixture of real words and ‘alien’ words. Alien words are words that are phonically-decodable but are not actual words with an associated meaning. They are included in the check specifically to assess whether your child can decode a word using their phonics skills.
All alien words in the check are accompanied by a picture of an imaginary creature. Children are taught that when a word has a creature next to it, it is an alien word. This ensures that they are not trying to match the alien word to a real word in their vocabulary. The check is designed to give teachers information on how your child is progressing in phonics. It will help to identify whether your child needs additional support at this stage so that they do not fall behind in this vital early reading skill. If your child does not pass the Phonics Screening Check in Year 1, they will retake the check in Year 2.
At all years throughout the school, the children are taught the key reading skills they need but our aim is that the majority of the word recognition skills (Phonics) are taught in EYFS and KS1 so that by the time the children start Year 3 they are fluent readers able to access a range of texts.
All pupils are encouraged to read widely across fiction, non-fiction and poetry to develop their knowledge of themselves and the world in which they live, to establish an appreciation and love of reading, and to gain knowledge across the curriculum. Reading widely and often increases pupils’ vocabulary because they encounter words they would rarely hear or use in everyday speech. Reading feeds pupils’ imagination and opens up a treasure-house of wonder and joy for curious young minds and as such is a significant focus throughout the year at Wellesbourne Primary and Nursery School.
The majority of our topics are based on and around high-quality texts and reading is encouraged throughout the year through events such as author visits; book celebration days; library visits and reading Stay, Play and Learn events.
In Reception-Year 4, children take part in Guided Reading sessions. These take place in small groups and are either fluency-based (using Phonics decodable books) or comprehension-based (using Project X books). From Year 1, children also take part in Whole-Class Reading Comprehension lessons. Lessons are taught using high-quality texts covering a range of genres, topics and curriculum areas. We aim to give our children exposure to a breadth of reading material in order to develop their expertise and understanding, prepare them for future life and enable them to access whatever kind of text is put in front of them. We primarily use Literacy Shed Plus as the basis for our Whole-Class Reading Comprehension lessons, however teachers can also link their fiction comprehension sessions to their Read to Write vehicle texts or class read. Non-fiction sessions can link to year group curriculum topics but should also sometimes be standalone in order to teach children how to tackle an unseen text with no background knowledge.
Early reading is crucial to your child’s development and achievement in school. Reading at home regularly will support your child and enable them to be a more confident reader. We expect children to read at least three times per week at home; please sign your child’s diary when you have read with them. Once children have read 10 books (or 6 books once children are on Level 14), they get to visit Miss Howard and receive a book prize to keep! Our children absolutely love this, so please read as often as you can with them!
We use a variety of reading interventions at Wellesbourne. These include additional Phonics lessons, additional Guided Reading lessons, precision teaching and one-to-one reading. We also use a computer based reading programme called ‘Lexia’. Lexia is used by all children but then also has targeted interventions for struggling readers. We have also recently introduced an intervention in Years 4-6 called Fluency Factory; this will be rolled out to younger year groups over the course of this academic year.