Reading At D’Eyncourt

At D’Eyncourt Primary School, we aim to equip our children with the passion and skills to be successful at reading.

Reading is a top priority and is a key driver for our curriculum. We believe that reading is central to our ability to understand, interpret and communicate with each other and the world around us. Success in reading has a direct effect upon progress in all areas of the curriculum; therefore, reading is given a high priority. We want the children to become enthusiastic, independent and reflective readers across a wide range of literature, including different text types and genres, books, posters, magazines, labels and newspapers.

It is our intention to ensure that by the end of their primary education, all pupils are able to read fluently and with confidence, in any subject in their forthcoming secondary education. We therefore intend to encourage all pupils to read widely across both fiction and non-fiction to develop: knowledge of themselves and the world in which they live; to establish an appreciation and love of reading; to gain knowledge across the curriculum; and develop their comprehension skills. We are committed to providing vocabulary rich reading material. We want our children to be ‘readers’, not just children who can read.

Our children in EYFS and KS1 follow the scheme of Read Write Inc. to help start their journey of learning to read. The scheme is well structured and has a levelled set of books written specifically to ensure that every child can take steady and progressive steps towards reading success. To support their learning, we also follow RWI’s decodable Book Bag Books. Your child will be given a book, which is tailored to their needs, and take it home to read with you. Furthermore, each child is provided with a reading diary as a means of encouraging communication between parent and teacher.

Each child is also given a second book, which will be from the class library, that they have chosen as a ‘reading for pleasure’ book. This is a book that you can share and read with your child. Please make every effort to read with your child on a regular basis and fill in their reading record.

As your child progresses through the school and they leave the Read, Write, Inc scheme, they will be immersed in a curriculum that creates and celebrates a pleasure for reading. Children will be able to choose books of their choice from the library and within their class library. They are a whole range of genres available in our school library which are available for the children to self-scan out using their unique code. They are also encouraged to read within class as well as enjoy story times with their teacher’s favourite books and take part in whole class guided reading sessions.

Guided reading lessons take place through the school. Teaching in these sessions focusses on developing pupils’ competence in both word reading and

comprehension as outlined in the national Curriculum Programmes of Study for reading. Skilled word reading involves both the speedy working out of the pronunciation of unfamiliar printed words (decoding) and the speedy recognition of familiar printed words. Underpinning both is the understanding that letters on the page represent the sounds in spoken words. This is why at D’Eyncourt phonics is emphasised in the early teaching of reading. Good comprehension draws from linguistic knowledge ( in particular of vocabulary and grammar) and on knowledge of the world Comprehension skills develop through pupils’ experience of high quality discussion with the teacher, as well as from reading and discussing a range of stories, poems and non-fiction. In reading sessions, we use the Twinkl Reading Dogs ‘Totally Pawsome Reading Gang’ to share the reading domains in a fun way.

Guided reading is taught in 3x 30-45 minute sessions per week The teacher has an explicit teaching role. There must be a clear focus to the lesson.

In addition to the taught skills, there is an aim to develop efficiency, independence and breadth. Therefore, short text extracts from a range of genres and classic texts as well as class readers are the basis for independent comprehension tasks; these also form the basis of vocabulary work within a pre-read to widen their knowledge. Again, consistent approaches are reinforced in these sessions, initially through the highlighting of key words and moving on to summarising. In addition, the element of efficiency increases throughout the Key Stage with the tracking of reading speed, fluency and subsequent intervention work is given

Supporting your child with reading

For more information regarding Read, Write, Inc. visit: https://home.oxfordowl.co.uk/reading/reading-schemes-oxford-levels/read-write-inc-phonics-guide/