English has a pre-eminent place in education and in society. A high-quality education in English will teach pupils to speak and write fluently so that they can communicate their ideas and emotions to others, and through their reading and listening, others can communicate with them. Through reading in particular, pupils have a chance to develop culturally, emotionally, intellectually, socially and spiritually. Literature, especially, plays a key role in such development. Reading also enables pupils both to acquire knowledge and to build on what they already know. All the skills of language are essential to participating fully as a member of society.
Source: National Curriculum (updated Jan 2021)
Making sure that children become engaged with reading from the beginning is one of the most important ways to make a difference to their life chances, whatever their socio-economic background. Children need to learn to read as fluently as possible and be motivated to continue reading. Reading offers important emotional benefits, enabling children to talk about their feelings. To the individual it matters emotionally, culturally and educationally; because of the economic impacts within society, it matters to everyone.
The Reading Framework (2021)
At Beckstone Primary School, reading develops in the following ways. Through building:
Excellence
Character
Community
Equity
Aims of the Reading Curriculum
We aim to achieve this through teaching an aspirational curriculum that includes:
Exposing children to high quality literature and a broad set of texts that reflects a diverse community. Over the course of their time at Beckstone Primary School, children are supported to develop competence with the various strands that come together to form a competent, effective and fluent reader (the strands of reading in Scarborough’s Reading Rope).
Long Term Sequence
Chosen programmes
Our literacy curriculum starts in EYFS. We follow the EYFS Statutory Framework for Literacy and the National Curriculum for Reading in Key Stage 1 and 2. We teach these frameworks using Literacy Tree Curriculum.
Phonics
We use No Nonsense Phonics to introduce synthetic phonics systematically. Children are taught letter sounds and letter names and taught to blend sounds in order to read whole words. Children read phonetically decodable books before they move to books containing high frequency key words, so that pupils master phonics and foster a love of stories and reading fluency.
Children read phonically decodable books which enable them to apply the knowledge they acquire in phonics lessons in a meaningful context and experience success in reading. Decodable readers relate closely to the stage of phonics being taught in class and are practised regularly in school and at home. Decodable readers are used until children are competent at Book 9 in our No Nonsense Phonics scheme.
Alongside this, children are exposed to a wide variety of high quality texts where they are able to build the comprehension skills needed to understand what has been read. We strongly believe that children need to be read to and share longer, beautiful books with their family at home. Therefore, they also take home a “Together Time” book of their choice Although decodable books are used primarily in Early Years and Year 1, from Year 2, they are used as part of the reading curriculum for pupils needing to catch up, including those new to English and with SEND.
Levelled readers
Children move on to book-banded reading books when they no longer need fully decodable texts. This is determined when they have completed NNP book 9 or can read fluently at Stage 10+ (scoring 10 or above on our fluency matrix). They also can answer a range of inference, prediction and summative questions about the texts they are reading. Children are tested using PIRA tests and if they are reading at their age related expectations they would move onto “free readers.” By Year 4, we aim for all children to be ‘free-readers’, choosing from a wide selection of books from their home reading boxes and book corners.
Fluency
When children are able to decode effectively, we focus on fluency which is the skill of reading at a conversational level, with appropriate pace and intonation and few errors. Fluency is not an end in itself but a gateway to comprehension. Fluent reading frees cognitive resources to process the meaning of what is read.
We aim for all of our pupils to be fluent readers at the end of Key Stage One.
Support
We recognise that reading is key to unlocking the wider curriculum and provide additional support that is informed by the latest assessment information. In all year groups, the lowest 20% readers are identified and the appropriate support is put in place to promote rapid progress. This may include additional 1:1 reading or booster intervention. The lowest 20% is reviewed regularly. Where possible, we also seek to create a keep up, not catch up culture so where possible interventions are designed to be booster programmes which are timely and over a shortened period of time.
R - Year 6
Literacy Tree Curriculum
The English national curriculum (2014) states that:
"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 language, and to develop their love of literature through widespread reading for enjoyment."
By placing books at the core, we are allowing teachers to use the text as the context for the requirements of the national curriculum. The national curriculum states that:
"This guidance is not intended to constrain or restrict teachers’ creativity, simply to provide the structure on which they can construct exciting lessons.""
This would suggest that a context for learning is vital – and this is where our chosen approach can support teachers with ensuring that objectives for reading and writing, including those for grammar can have purpose.
We will always aim for our writing opportunities to be meaningful and to feel authentic. Whether these are short or long and that the audience is clear. Books offer this opportunity: our aim would be that that children have real reasons to write, whether to explain, persuade, inform or instruct and that where possible, this can be embedded within text or linked to a curriculum area. Writing in role using a range of genres is key to our approach and we would always model the tone and level of formality. This sits comfortably alongside the following statement from the English national curriculum:
"The national curriculum for English aims to ensure that all pupils write clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences."
Reading in the Early Years
At Beckstone Primary School, we follow the EYFS Statutory Framework for Literacy. The teaching of reading in Early Years supports the development of linking sounds to letters and understanding that from this we can read and write. Children will begin to recognise print in their environment and start to understand that this is one way of communicating with one another. It is vital that children understand that print carries meaning and that they are able to engage with this essential element of communication and the high importance it holds. We actively promote the importance of reading through stories, songs and poems in a variety of different contexts and for different purposes, using a wide range of media. We ensure that children are exposed to a range of quality texts that promote interest and a love of stories and reading.
We follow themes of learning within the EYFS and each term we share 3-4 core text books linked to our termly theme. We discuss how print conveys meaning and children are taught how to locate a word and are shown directionality. Intonation is modelled by the adults reading the books and comprehension and inference questions are asked at the end of the story.
Each week we have 3-4 focus children. During a child’s focus week they bring in their favourite book to share with the class. This helps to foster a love of reading.
Children in Reception are given a book bag which they are encouraged to bring to school each day, in order to promote good reading habits. Children in Nursery take home a story to share with their family and Reception children take a phonically decodable book matched to their ability and a Together Time book to share for pleasure.
Children in Reception take part in literacy sessions using Literacy Tree three times a week and phonics teaching takes place daily. At the end of each week they will be sent home a decodable book that is accurately matched to their decoding ability. The lowest attaining readers 20% will be read with 1:1.
Reading and phonics workshops are held at the start of the school year to support parents to help their children learn to read and to engage them with school.
Phonics and reading are assessed regularly. Teachers complete an online tracking sheet for each child, highlight the EYFS profile and complete phonics tracking sheets.
The Reading Environment and Entitlement:
At Beckstone Primary School, our learning environment promotes a love of reading. Every class has a book corner, which promotes quality books and authors.
Book Corners
In Early Years, book corners have a mix of fiction and non-fiction books. These books may be ones which have been shared with the whole class at storytime, linked to the current topic or class favourites. This enables children to develop their vocabulary and practise reading and talking about familiar stories.
Key Stage 1 book corners contain a range of fiction and non-fiction picture books which are linked to topics they study across the curriculum, texts from previous reading, English lessons or class favourites.
Key Stage 2 book corners include picture books and longer fiction and non-fiction texts from a range of levels. These books are sometimes read in class and can be taken home if matched appropriately to a child’s reading level. All Stages have a stock of Oxford School dictionaries and thesauruses.
Core Texts
Each cohort has a suite of core texts that forms the depth study for the academic year: Literacy Tree texts. Some are aligned with wider curriculum subjects, such as History and Geography. These core texts are complemented by supporting texts, designed to strengthen the children’s understanding. These are called Literacy Leaves and are used for group or whole class teaching. These books are fiction, poetry or non-fiction.
Literature Spine EYFS-Y6
These core texts have been mapped carefully to ensure a breadth of experiences, authors, texts and themes is addressed across the primary years. As well as providing joyful literary experiences, these texts include diverse representation, relevant social issues, big ethical questions and moral dilemmas.
Here is an example:
Reading at home
All children take home books to read from school. Children in Early Years and Key Stage 1 are sent home with a fully decodable book until they complete the phonics programme and are assessed as being ready for levelled books. They also take home one high quality picture book to share with an adult as we recognise the importance of promoting reading for pleasure. Children in Key Stage 2 take home a levelled reader until they are considered ‘free readers’. At this point teaching staff help guide pupils' book choices so that they read widely, make appropriate choices and develop an enthusiasm for reading. Children in KS2 who are not secure in their phonics knowledge will continue to take home phonically matched texts.
Children from Reception to Year 6 are expected to read at home regularly and this forms a central element of our homework policy. Reading journals should be completed each time a child reads at home. They will be checked weekly by a member of staff.
To help parents support their children with reading at home we run workshops and provide phonics videos for parents in Reception and guidance is shared with all families. We also hold a variety of community events during the school year which aim to promote a love of reading such as our Readathon, Mystery Reader, Extreme Reading Challenge and Summer Reading Bingo.
Reading for pleasure
Each day, stories are shared with children or children engage in independent reading
Events
We also aim to encourage a love of reading through events like celebrating World Book Day, Poetry By Heart and author interaction
Linking curriculum and pedagogy:
Our reading curriculum is taught across each year in blocks that enable pupils to develop their fluency, prosody and comprehension skills and develop their vocabulary and knowledge of the world. Each block builds upon prior learning, with opportunities to introduce and revisit key concepts in order to deepen pupil understanding and embed learning.
Phonics
We follow the No Nonsense Phonics programme. The first session includes 5 elements. They are:
The second session has four elements which are:
Phonics is taught daily in both Reception and Year 1. Children in Year 2 will also take part in phonics lessons until they complete No Nonsense Phonics Book 9 and are able to decode successfully.
Year 1 - Year 6 – Literacy Tree
Key Stage 1 - Structure
Key Stage 2 - Structure
Writing Root Structure
Here is an example of a Writing Root structure from the Literacy Tree Curriculum.
Assessments
A range of assessments are used, formatively and summatively, to judge progress and areas for support:
Formative assessment
Summative assessment
Non-statutory:
Statutory:
High quality outcomes:
Pupil’s reading books and pupil book studies will:
Pupil Voice
In lessons and pupil book studies, pupils can:
