Reading Vision Statement

A Stoke Park reader will

- have a secure phonological awareness to become a confident and fluent reader who will have a love of reading.

- develop an automaticity of reading fluency, using prosody and nuances which affect the meaning and intention of the written word.

- develop the relationship between being a reader and a writer, in order to comment on the effect of grammar and punctuation.

- experience a rich diet of texts which develop their stamina of reading longer texts and cover a wide range of genres and interests.

 - enjoy reading for pleasure, whilst developing a critical understanding of what has happened in the text.

- build-upon and learn key vocabulary to develop a wider understanding of concepts and knowledge to enhance the spoken and written word.

- develop their skill of imagination, inventiveness and critical awareness of issues in their local, national and global communities e.g. deforestation

Intent

Our aim is for all children to become fluent and competent readers, who have a good understanding of what they read. We provide high quality and stimulating teaching and learning experiences and environments, which enable our children to become confident, enthusiastic and independent readers. Through the use of rich and heritage texts and memorable experiences such as Book Week, author visits and reading incentives, our children develop a genuine love of reading across a wide and diverse range of authors and genres.

Implementation

Through a rich and stimulating text driven curriculum, we inspire and engage all our children. Our learning journeys utilise the Hampshire Inspection and Advisory Service (HIAS) Reading toolkit. This consistently promotes reading skills including word reading, comprehension, the skills of clarify, summarise, select and retrieve, respond and explain, inference, language for effect and themes and conventions consistently across the whole school. Our progressive curriculum builds on these domains to explicitly teach reading skills, which enable children to understand and fully comprehend longer and more complex concepts within a story or text. The progression of the cognitive load enables children to become competent readers and transfer these skills across all subjects within the curriculum.

Daily guided reading sessions follow a ‘blended approach’ where all pupils can access and explore high quality texts. Appropriate differentiation for identified pupils, based on reading or comprehension ability, allows all pupils to participate in high quality, dialogic talk about a range of texts. This ‘blended’ approach, specifically targets the needs of the children, in order to develop their skills as a reader and promote opportunities for reading fluency. Every child at Stoke Park is allocated a ‘Learn to Read’ book, which is a colour banded and based on their phonic knowledge. These books are taken home to share with an adult, but should not require support to read it. The book is read three times to promote reading automaticity and fluency, with limited sounding out. Every child selects  their 'Love to Read' book, from either their class or school library. Children are supported to make choices which may relate to a particular subject or author they are  interested in. They might not be able to read it by themselves but can read it with an adult or family member - or it can be read to them. All children have access to the school library on a weekly basis, plus the opportunity to select a ‘Love to Read’ book with their parent or carer, at the end of the school day.

Children record their reading journeys in their individual planners which are monitored by staff. Identified pupils are selected for intensive and additional reading with either their teacher, Teaching Assistant or one of our adult reading volunteers. At Stoke Park we are lucky to have our school reading dog, Eric, who listens to pupils across all year groups read their ‘Learn to Read’ book, which provides an additional opportunity for reading aloud and discussing their book. Every classrooms has a rich library of age appropriate texts available to the children and everyday there are opportunities for the children to read their ‘Learn to Read’ and ‘Love to Read’ books. Our reading for pleasure culture is further promoted by class novels, which are read aloud to the children. Year groups use their ‘Book Swap’ areas to encourage children to exchange their well-loved books to another book they can take home and love with their families.

Impact

Most children at Stoke Park Junior will be on track for making expected progress, or better, in order to achieve their age-related expectations. Our children become well-rounded readers who have a good understanding of what they read and have a true love of reading. 

The use of rigorous termly assessments, plus the monitoring and tracking of pupil progress ensures that no pupil falls behind and gaps are closed quickly. PM Benchmarking assessment ensures we analyse reading fluency and comprehension, whilst forensically analysing barriers to learning and ensure ‘Learn to Read’ books are is closely matched to a pupil’s reading needs. Whilst regular reading opportunities and blended guided reading allows us to consistently and accurately use Assessment for Learning (AFL) to adjust planning and respond to pupils needs. We are proud of our reading provision and hope as children move on from Stoke Park Junior School their understanding, rich reading diet and love of reading continues to grow and develop as they do.