Reading
We encourage a love and curiosity for reading throughout school, right from EYFS through to Year Six. At Danetree, we believe reading opens the door to learning. A child who reads avidly will love books forever. A good reader will be able to read more challenging material. A child who reads challenging material is a child who will learn. The more a child learns, the more he or she will want to find out.
Reading is an integral part of everything we do at Danetree Primary School, with children being taught the skills they need to decode (read words on the page) as well as developing their comprehension (understanding what a piece of writing means).
Book fairs
We hold termly book fairs through Scholastic UK which always does incredibly well and earns the school money to spend on books. More information about the next book fair will be shared with parents and carers closer to the time.
Reading for Pleasure
Reading for pleasure has so many benefits: it can increase empathy, improve relationships with others and improve wellbeing throughout life. It can also make people feel more connected to the wider community as it increases a person’s understanding of their own identity and gives them an insight into the world view of others.
Children who read for pleasure make significantly more progress in vocabulary, spelling and maths than those who read very little. Children with more positive attitudes towards reading are more likely to read at or above the expected level for their age. Developing positive attitudes towards reading plays a key role in children’s development and at Danetree we encourage children to read books of their choice for pleasure to encourage a positive attitude and a life-long interest in reading.
Finding a Book to Read
Children are able to borrow both fiction, poetry and non-fiction books from our school library and their classroom book corners. All children get the chance to visit the school library every week, and are able to borrow one book at a time.
Hearing Your Child Read
We encourage all our children to read aloud to an adult or older sibling on a daily basis if possible. This helps children practise reading to an audience and helps them to become fluent and confident readers. Discussing what your child is reading will help to develop their understanding. See the 'Hearing Your Child Read' document at the bottom of this page for more information.
Parent workshops
Reading parent workshops are held across each phase of the school with the aim of upskilling parents in supporting their child with their reading journey. Please check out our workshops this academic year.
Reading Journey in Early Years Foundation Stage
For information about Phonics and early reading, please click on the following link.
Early Years Foundation Stage
Reading is a high priority within Early Years and underpins everything we do. This includes making sure topics taught are built around a wide selection of books linked to children’s interests.
Over the course of the academic year the Nursery team ensure that children attending the Nursery are provided with exciting reading opportunities and are reading high quality chosen books. These books have been selected to be topical, traditional tales and story-based language, enriched language and patterned language stimulus and to provide the start of a deep cultural capital with acceptance, diversity and equality being taught through stories, rhymes and books. Books will also be shared that assist children with moments of transition and help with emotions or life events.
Reading in Early Years
In Reception, children are taught the technical skills of reading but are also taught how to talk about books through whole class taught sessions and small group work. Reception children have a balance of phonics-based books and ‘real’ books to develop the wide range of reading skills. These ‘real’ books are our Dream Reads. We have selected a set of wonderful books which we feel will give our children an enjoyable and varied reading diet by the time they leave Reception. Our Dream Reads are sent home with the children during the weekly ‘Family Library Time’ to be enjoyed with their adult/s.
EYFS consider books that relate to past and present, people, cultures and communities, natural world and starting school and moving on.Early Years Foundation Stage.
“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 (necessary for both reading and writing) starts from birth. It only develops 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, taught later, involves both the speedy working out of the pronunciation of unfamiliar printed words. Writing involves transcription (spelling and handwriting) and composition (articulating ideas and structuring them in speech, before writing).” EYFS Statutory Framework Education Programme
By the end of their Reception year the children are expected to meet ‘Comprehension’ and ‘Word Reading’ Early Learning Goals (ELGs).
ELG: Comprehension
Children at the expected level of development will:
- Demonstrate understanding of what has been read to them by retelling stories and narratives using their own words and recently introduced vocabulary;
- Anticipate – where appropriate – key events in stories;
- Use and understand recently introduced vocabulary during discussions about stories, non-fiction, rhymes and poems and during role-play.
ELG: Word Reading
Children at the expected level of development will:
- Say a sound for each letter in the alphabet and at least 10 digraphs;
- Read words consistent with their phonic knowledge by sound-blending;
- Read aloud simple sentences and books that are consistent with their phonic knowledge, including some common exception words.
Reading In Key Stage 1
Children in Years 1-6 continue to be supported with developing their reading fluency, accuracy and stamina as well as the progression of comprehension skills. This is achieved through both group and whole-class reading sessions.
Wherever possible, our English units are planned around high quality texts to ensure our pupils are immersed in quality literature.
Children receive daily reading sessions in Read Write Inc. or guided reading when the program is finished, which run in small groups, and a daily whole class reading to support their reading skill development in relation to the year group outcomes.
Books in Year One
In Year 1, children continue to be taught the technical skills of reading and develop their talk about books through whole class taught sessions and small group work. Year 1 children have a balance of phonics-based books and ‘real’ books to develop the wide range of reading skills. These ‘real’ books are a carefully selected range of books that support these chosen texts. We have selected a set of wonderful books which we feel will give our children an enjoyable and varied reading diet that will extend and further develop reading knowledge and vocabulary. They will support life changes and new situations that children may experience.
Year 1 National Curriculum objectives
Books in Year Two
In Year 2, children continue to build upon their learning of reading to become more fluent and knowledgeable about texts. This will be taught through whole class sessions and small group guided reading work. Year 2 children have closely matched phonics-based books and a wider selection of ‘real’ books to develop the wide range of reading and language skills. We have carefully selected a set of wonderful books which we feel will give our children an enjoyable and varied reading diet that will extend and further develop reading knowledge and vocabulary. They will support life changes and new situations that children may experience.
Year 2 National Curriculum objectives
Reading in Key Stage 2
Whole Class Teaching
At Danetree Primary School we use DERIC as a whole class approach to teach reading skills from Y2- summer upwards, which equips pupils with the necessary skills to be successful readers. It focuses on building fluency and embedding comprehension skills with direct, taught sessions. DERIC stands for; Decode, Explain, Retrieve, Interpret and Choice. These are all closely linked to the assessed strands in the end of key stage assessments.
DERIC:
D for decode - this is the sounding out and blending of words and then becoming more confident with reading words on sight.
E for explain - asking the children to explain the meaning of words and being able to explain what is happening in the text they have read.
R - for retrieve - asking the children questions where the answer can be found in the text or pictures. For example: How many cups are on the table? What colour is the bear's hat?
I - for interpret - the children are to use their inference skills to use clues in the text and what they already know to make suggestions about what they have read. (Using ‘because’ in their responses). For example: Why do you think the bear was crying?
C - for choice - asking the children questions about why the author has chosen to lay out the text in a particular way.
When teaching, there is one learning objective for the whole class based around the same text. The activities or level of support is adapted for different abilities so that all children can access the learning objective and be challenged. Sometimes, texts are part of a class book or at other times they are a poem or non-fiction article depending on the writing focus. The whole class reading approach supports rapid progress of lower ability readers. Research suggests this is due to exposure to higher-level questions and answers. Pictorial stimulus or activities which are designed to have a comprehension focus but reduce the amount of decoding can also be used to support SEND/EAL pupils.
At Danetree Primary School, we promote the use of a variety of carefully selected literature that is matched to the attainment level of pupils. These texts have subtle challenges and allow pupils to reinforce fluency, decoding and comprehension skills regularly.
Additional opportunities are provided for pupils to practise and extend reading in other subjects.
Intervention
Any child who is at risk of falling behind with their reading will be identified quickly and appropriate support will be put in place.
The following interventions will be considered:
- 1:1 RWI Phonics Tutoring (4 – 9 years)
- 1:1 RWI Fresh Start Phonics (9 years +)
- Inferential comprehension booster sessions
- 1:1 daily reading
- Precision teaching of High Frequency Words (‘tricky words’)
