Reading
Here at Woodlands, we put reading at the heart of our curriculum as it is the key to unlocking potential and a world of learning. All children from Nursery to Year 6 are read to everyday using a range of high-quality texts.
Teachers also carefully select texts to enhance learning opportunities across all areas of the curriculum from Nursery to Year 6.
Phonics
The children begin their phonics journey in Nursery, where they begin by practising their speaking and listening skills.
These skills are broken into seven aspects:
1) environment sounds
2) instrumental sounds
3) body percussion
4) rhythm and rhyme
5) alliteration
6) voice sounds
7) oral blending and segmenting
At Woodlands, we follow Read, Write Inc for phonics. This scheme is high-quality, systematic and allows the children to make good progress.
The children are taught new sounds (phonemes) alongside the written letter (grapheme). Each grapheme has its own rhyme to help the children to learn the correct letter formation.
Reading at KS2
“Reading should not be presented to children as a chore or duty. It should be offered to them as a precious gift.” – Kate DiCamillo
As the children develop their fluency and understanding of texts, they move onto the Accelerated Reader programme. All children have the opportunity to read to an adult at least once a week, and those on the Accelerated Reading programme will read books matched to their level of comprehension. Once a book is completed, the children will take a quiz before moving onto the next level or choose another book. This progress is closely monitored, and extra reading opportunities are given to the children who require it.
Reading at home
“One of the greatest gifts adults can give – to their offspring and to their society – is to read to children.” – Carl Sagan.
We place huge value on the opportunities children have to read at home. Multiple studies have confirmed that reading aloud improves vocabulary and attention span. All adults in our school family are able to log reading with children using the Boom Reader app. This allows excellent communication between home and school, and the opportunity for adults to pass on tricky vocabulary to a child’s teacher.
Guided Reading
At Woodlands, we follow the CUSP Curriculum for our guided reading sessions. CUSP has been designed using high-quality texts which provide the children with a variety of genres and viewpoints. These texts have been mapped carefully to ensure that a breadth of experiences, authors, texts and themes are addressed across the Primary years. In addition to these texts, there are core poems that each year group will study in detail. In order to bring the knowledge gained from these texts into the wider curriculum, we have arranged the units to make the strongest links with the Learning Journeys of each Year Group.
Reading at KS2
“Reading should not be presented to children as a chore or duty. It should be offered to them as a precious gift.” – Kate DiCamillo
As the children develop their fluency and understanding of texts, they move onto the Accelerated Reader programme. All children have the opportunity to read to an adult at least once a week, and those on the Accelerated Reading programme will read books matched to their level of comprehension. Once a book is completed, the children will take a quiz before moving onto the next level or choose another book. This progress is closely monitored, and extra reading opportunities are given to the children who require it.
Reading at home
“One of the greatest gifts adults can give – to their offspring and to their society – is to read to children.” – Carl Sagan.
We place huge value on the opportunities children have to read at home. Multiple studies have confirmed that reading aloud improves vocabulary and attention span. All adults in our school family are able to log reading with children using the Boom Reader app. This allows excellent communication between home and school, and the opportunity for adults to pass on tricky vocabulary to a child’s teacher.
Guided Reading
At Woodlands, we follow the CUSP Curriculum for our guided reading sessions. CUSP has been designed using high-quality texts which provide the children with a variety of genres and viewpoints. These texts have been mapped carefully to ensure that a breadth of experiences, authors, texts and themes are addressed across the Primary years. In addition to these texts, there are core poems that each year group will study in detail. In order to bring the knowledge gained from these texts into the wider curriculum, we have arranged the units to make the strongest links with the Learning Journeys of each Year Group.
A typical lesson
- Introduce tricky vocabulary and discuss meanings.
- Read a text using echo, repeated or paired reading techniques.
- Teacher demonstrates techniques for answering a reading question.
- Class works together to answer a reading question.
- Children work independently to answer reading questions.
The following websites have enjoyable games for your child to play to practice their reading of phonetically decodable words.
http://ictgames.com/literacy.html
https://teachyourmonstertoread.com
Library
We have an extensive library, full of exciting books and a dedicated librarian to support the children in their choices. Children from Nursery to Year 6 visit the library and borrow books to read for pleasure. Our library is open to all children every lunchtime.
Favourite 5
At Woodlands, we value story time and see it as a valuable and powerful part of our school day. It is through stories that the children can be transported to magical lands and far off places. It is through stories that children can learn about other cultures, beliefs and backgrounds. It is through stories that children can learn about and deepen their understanding of emotions. Story time also allows for language and vocabulary to develop.
With this in mind, each half term we carefully select 5 high-quality texts to add to classrooms (Nursery – Year 2) for the teachers to read to the children, and for the children to enjoy independently. These books are read regularly as each time the book is read, the children’s familiarity deepens, and with that, comes a greater emotional engagement.
