Our Early Reading lead is Mrs Sage alongside our Reading and English lead Mrs Dormand. They work together to ensure that there is curriculum progression all the way from nursery through to year 6.
Curriculum Statement: Our curriculum is very closely linked to our vision “Be Courageous. Be Strong. Do Everything with love.” and this is at the centre of our curriculum design. As a school with a fluctuating cohort and large differences in numbers within each year group, our curriculum overview links to our class structure with subject specific focus and emphasis on skills progression. This approach ensures high expectations and outcomes that challenge and develop every child’s personal skillset. It is vital to us that our children have an inclusive curriculum that celebrates diversity and ‘brings the world to Warton’.
Intent: Reading is at the heart of our English curriculum. Our curriculum offer for English is based upon core texts for each year group from Nursery to Year 6. Through these core texts, children will read traditional tales, modern fiction, classic fiction and also access visual literacy through both picture books and film. In Year 6, instead of reading a traditional tale, the children study and read Shakespeare. Our texts have been carefully chosen to ensure progress within and across year groups through the texts themselves increasing in depth and challenge. In EYFS and KS1 reading skills are taught using the ‘Rocket Phonics’ scheme moving to reading being taught through whole class ‘Active Reading’ lessons from Year 2.
Reading in KS2
In KS2, we teach reading through a whole class ‘Active Reading’ lesson. Each day a different reading skill linked to the national curriculum is taught and the lessons are linked to the core text that the class are reading.
To see the National Curriculum for reading please click here.
You can view our approach to the teaching of reading using this document.
Reading for progress
From Year 2, children have ‘Reading for Progress’ time at the start of every day. This is where children have the opportunity to read books from our reading scheme both independently and 1:1 with an adult. All children are ‘benchmarked’ regularly to assess progress in word recognition and comprehension and to ensure that their reading book is at an appropriate level. Our levelled reading books can all be found in our library where pupils can choose a text from a given colour band.
Reading for pleasure
Across the school, at the end of each day, children have time to engage in activities that promote reading for pleasure. These include: children listening to their teacher read class texts, listening to and reading poems aloud, listening to different teachers read their favourite texts, texts read by our subject champions linking to cross curricular subjects, children reading aloud to each other and recommending and choosing texts themselves.
Reading challenge
Our reading challenge aims to bring the literary world to Warton! Children are challenged and encouraged to read a range of books from a selection of high quality, modern, classic and culturally diverse texts. The challenge is to read 50 books across Reception/Key Stage one, Lower Key Stage Two and Upper Key Stage Two; meaning that they have new books to access 3 times in their time at Warton. Children are rewarded at different milestones through the challenge and celebrated in our weekly collective worships!
English Curriculum – Sycamore – Year 1
English Curriculum – Maple – Year 3/4
English Curriculum – Oak – Year 6
Homework
Reading is a key element of our homework policy and it is expected that all children read at least 3 times per week at home and that this is evidenced in their reading records. For younger pupils, reading at home can include a parent or carer reading to children as well as them reading their known text from phonics aloud to parents.