- Reading skills are clearly outlined in an age-appropriate and progressive way so that the children's reading is extended as they progress throughout school. Teaching follows this progression; however, staff decide on teaching based on children's progress. Staff will revisit or consolidate a skill where necessary.
- Reading skills are applied in other subject areas so that our children realise that reading is important across the curriculum.
- Fluency builds a bridge between word recognition and comprehension. It allows pupils to make connections between what they are reading and their own background knowledge. At Cravenwood, we explicitly teach fluency to all children from Year 2 – Year 6 weekly.
- At Cravenwood, sequenced lessons ensure that prior learning is checked and built upon. We teach this sequence from Year 2 (when children can confidently decode words using their knowledge of phonics) to Year 6.
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Day 1- The sequence starts with the explicit teaching of Vocabulary, which involves introducing age specific vocabulary and the definitions.
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Day 2- Moves on to the explicit teaching of Fluency, in which children use decoding strategies to unpick unfamiliar vocabulary.
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Day 3- Following this, we use Guided Practice to master a specific reading skill, such as retrieval, inference, summarising, etc. Children then complete independent practice to demonstrate their learning.
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Day 4- Finally, to assess the understanding of the text, children complete a comprehension where children need to demonstrate their fluency and understanding of the text through a variety of different reading skills.
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Teachers use shared reading, 1:1 individual reading, group reading and whole class reading to teach a range of skills and fluency techniques, which enable the children to comprehend the meaning of what they are reading and develop their understanding of the vocabulary used by the authors.
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Reading books are sent home on a regular basis, all children are encouraged to read at home every evening; the children will take home one reading book that is accurately matched to their reading ability and in Early Years, children also take home a book to be shared with parents.
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Early Years and KS1 have ten good quality, creative texts which are engaging and language rich; these will be shared consistently throughout the year. This ensures that all children are exposed to a variety of high-quality texts that they can share and enjoy and use to model their own writing. These books include classic and modern texts and authors.
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The school has an inviting and well resourced library area. All children are encouraged to use the library at any time during the day and each class will visit at least once a week to enjoy the books available. The library gives children the opportunity to relax with a good book in a quiet area.
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Each classroom has a reading area which contains a selection of favourite story books, poetry and non-fiction books which are age appropriate and more challenging for children to have free choice of their reading matter.
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Every class participates in at least one shared story session per day where a high-quality text is shared; this may include stories, poems, rhymes and non-fiction texts.
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The school subscribes to ‘Bug Club’. These books are used to enhance lessons but the children also have access at home. The books are carefully selected by the class teacher to match their phonic ability and encourage a range of skills and techniques to support their understanding and enjoyment of reading in a fun and exciting way.