Cherry Grove Primary School Reading
At Cherry Grove, we place high value on reading and aim to develop a love of reading from a very young age. Through guided reading and guided comprehension we encourage all children to develop excellent literacy skills for lifelong learning.
Every classroom has a class library with quality books to choose from. Cherry Grove has excellent links with a variety of publishing houses which enables us to regularly host author visits across the year. Each class visits the library once a term where children take part in storytelling sessions and are able to choose a book.
Nursery
Talking, listening, extending vocabulary and gaining familiarity with core books are key elements of the Nursery programme before the children embark on systematic phonics sessions.
Reception and KS1
In Nursery, Foundation Stage and KS1, we use and Read, Write Inc to deliver a structured, systematic programme of phonics and reading. Children in KS1 who have exited the Read Write Inc program will transition to Read Write Inc comprehension. Teachers listen to children read on a weekly basis and every class has a class text/story which is read to them daily. All children are asked to read for 10 mins a day at home and record their reading in their reading records. English lessons are delivered through Pathways to Write quality texts.
KS2
We follow a Mastery approach to English through the programme Pathways to Read. Units of work are delivered using high quality texts and children in all year groups are given varied opportunities for reading. Skills are built up through repetition within the units, and children apply these skills in the reading activities provided.
We deliver whole class shared reading lesson daily with bespoke grouped reading for every pupil at least once a week as well as individual reading. In our shared and grouped reads, there is a clear teaching focus with the opportunity to master key reading skills in each session. There are follow on reading tasks to enable pupils to evidence the skills they have mastered independently.
Many opportunities for widening children’s vocabulary are given through the Pathways to Read approach and this builds on the extensive work we do in school to provide our children with a rich and varied vocabulary.
Pathways to Read covers reading comprehension and vocabulary development within the mastery approach and divides the national curriculum into three sections: ongoing skills, core skills and mastery skills. The planning ensures a consistent approach to reading across the school with clear progression of skills.
The end of year expectations for reading for each of our year groups is in the attached document below.
Reading at home
We encourage children to read at home at least five times a week and share what they have read with their parents. This is recorded in their yellow reading diary and checked weekly by staff. Parents of children who do not read frequently enough at home are reminded of the importance of this at parent teacher meetings. Once the children are confident decoders and fluent readers, the books they take home are aligned with their reading age.
Assessment
Children’s individual reading needs and progress in reading is assessed each term using the Progress In Reading Assessments (PIRA) from Year 2-6. This enables the teachers to identify reading ages and any areas for development in terms of comprehension skills and plan lessons and support accordingly.
Teachers use formative assessment to identify any gaps in the children’s knowledge or skills and teach these accordingly. Summative assessments (PIRA/SATs) are also used termly. Children at risk of not meeting expectations or who aren’t making sufficient progress are given additional support through extra 1:1 reading sessions and 'Herts for Learning' fluency intervention. Parents will be informed if their children are not making the expected progress in reading so that we can work together to help them.
Children in Key Stage 2 that still require phonics teaching, continue with a specially tailored RWI programme to meet their individual needs:
- Year 3 (working below age related expectations) will continue on the core Read, Write, Inc program.
- Years 4, 5 and 6 (working below) will be given Fast Start sessions daily.
Daily routine
The daily routine allows for a range of opportunities for children to read and be read to. These include:
- silent reading time
- class story at the end of the day
- comprehension sessions
- English session - Immersive texts
- Child led selection of books - children choose what they read - not what they are told to,
- Regular theme days and reading events such as World Book Day, Roving book shop, The Book Bus visits and many more.
Birthday Books
Children who have a birthday on a school day gift their class a book to celebrate. This is voluntary and the book is just a small token to share the celebrations of their day with our love of reading. Parents can select the books from the following recommendations: