Intent

At St Gabriel’s School, reading is at the heart of everything we do. We aspire to develop fluency and confidence in reading and furthermore to instil a genuine love of books that lasts a lifetime. Our pupils are equipped with a range of strategies for decoding texts, to encourage fluency as well as independence while reading. We expose children to a broad repertoire of genres that incorporate a variety of contexts, cultures and traditions. 

 Implementation

We embed our vision for reading by implementing a holistic approach that incorporates our school and the wider community. Reading is taught discretely on a daily basis within school, while every opportunity is also utilised to actively encourage engagement with a variety of texts outside of the classroom. This is achieved through a number of initiatives and programmes. Reading plays an integral role in delivering enriching and engaging topics across the curriculum and is widely celebrated in our reading-rich school environment.   

 EYFS – Nursery & Reception

Children begin their reading journey using the Little Wandle Revised Letters and Sounds approach to phonics teaching. Phonics teaching helps children to understand the relationships between the letters (graphemes) of written language and the individual sounds (phonemes) of spoken language.

Words are made up of sounds (phonemes) and in English there are 44 sounds.

At St. Gabriel’s, we use the Little Wandle Revised Letters and Sounds approach to phonics teaching. ‘Letters & Sounds’ is a six-phase teaching programme designed to help children understand how letters in the alphabet work to help us to read and spell.

Further information about Little Wandle phonics progression, including some useful videos, can be found in the link below.

https://www.littlewandle.org.uk/resources/for-parents/

Key Stage 1 – Year 1 and Year 2

As children progress from EYFS into Year 1, the phonics strategies they have acquired are used as the core foundation upon which reading is developed. Pupils build on the skills that they have acquired in the early years and progress through the more complex sounds and letter patterns.

Additionally, the children participate in regular engaging story sessions, where they have the opportunity to experience and explore the wonder and excitement of books. Children can ask and answer questions, share their opinions and ideas, develop their vocabulary and broaden their understanding of texts. Children read regularly with an adult, where they have the opportunity to demonstrate their understanding, through targeted questions and discussion. Children are expected to read to an adult at home for a minimum of 20 minutes on a regular basis.

In Year 2 and upwards, Little Wandle Fluency aims to build confidence and provide a bridge between word recognition (reading words that connects letters to sounds), and a deep and comprehensive understanding of the text.

 Key Stage 2 – Year 3, 4, 5 and 6

Children participate in daily, discrete reading lessons. At this stage, they will focus on developing a deeper understanding of texts, will further advance their skills of inference and continue to broaden their vocabulary. 

Pupils are able to explore high-quality texts in real depth, building their vocabulary and understanding of language, as well as their analytical skills. Teachers are able to steer the learners to investigate elements of the text on a more sophisticated level, and demonstrate effective reading strategies that will enhance their level of comprehension.

Reading at Home

At St Gabriel’s, we actively encourage children to further their learning journeys at home. When children read with their families, a common interest and connection is made that establishes a nurturing environment in which children can flourish. Simultaneously, children will have the opportunity to rehearse their reading strategies and share a growing love of learning with their families. 

Reading for Pleasure

Reading is very much at the heart of all we do in school and we strive to encourage children to read for pleasure and not just to retrieve information. We aim to foster a love of reading through our creative learning environments and reading areas in classrooms. By igniting children’s imaginations and enticing their curiosity, we hope to instil in them a desire to not only finish a book, but to find another.

Each year, children are actively encouraged to join all of the staff at St Gabriel’s, in dressing up as their favourite book character. We have most certainly seen some remarkable efforts in recent years. Children have also had the fantastic opportunity to welcome their parents into the classroom and work together in a range of reading activities to strengthen the connection between their learning in school and their reading at home. 

Impact

Our aim, through the teaching and learning of reading at St Gabriel’s, is that children not only derive pleasure from books in school but also make reading a part of their life. We aim to develop an ideology, that reading is a vital skill that can connect you to a world of knowledge across all subjects and open doors to opportunities that were once out of reach. 

 Through the strategies and approaches outlined, the impact of teaching will see pupils accurately decode words and read with fluency, intonation and expression. When faced with new or challenging vocabulary, they will be equipped with a range of strategies at their disposal, to read words in context and understand their meaning. This will in turn, improve the confidence of children to read and speak aloud, allowing them to participate in and lead discussions, sharing their own opinions with a greater appreciation of a far-reaching range of topics.

 We want children to experience a range of genres, themes, authors, and make informed decisions about the books they choose, based on their own unique reading journeys. The skills, vocabulary and writing styles learned through reading, will be applied to their own work in school.

 Although we want children to read for pleasure, they will develop and hone a host of strategies that will allow them to use reading as a source of knowledge and gain a deeper understanding of the world around them. This broader knowledge will aid reading comprehension and instil greater understanding across the curriculum

Here at St Gabriel’s, we regard books as gifts that can be enjoyed a limitless number of times. We view reading as one of the best constructive habits that anyone can have and something that has a huge positive impact in almost every aspect of our lives.