To develop as effective readers, pupils should be taught to: -

• read accurately, fluently and with understanding

• understand and respond to the texts they read

• read, analyse and evaluate a wide range of texts; including literature from the English literary heritage and from other cultures and traditions

 

We believe that reading is the most vital skill to be acquired in the early years at school. It is about enjoyment and making meaning; about reading for information and pleasure.

 

Our Objectives

• To have all children wanting to read as well as being able to; and to provide an atmosphere for learning to read, free from anxiety, stress and competition.

• To treat each child as an individual; recognising and building on pre-school language experience.

• To provide a rich and stimulating learning environment.

• To develop independent, critical readers who read for pleasure as well as to gain information.

• To provide inviting book areas where children can browse.

• To foster a love of books and motivate children by giving them a positive sense of enjoyment associated with books.

• To encourage children to read fluently, accurately and with full understanding (and to evaluate and justify preferences).

• To teach the alphabet with the ability to apply this to dictionaries, thesauri and reference books.

• To value children's own writing as reading material.

• To help children to extract information and develop the skills of skimming and scanning.

• To encourage the children to select and interpret information, reading critically, so as to form balanced opinions.

• To endeavour, within the limits of our resources, to provide pupils with a variety of texts.

• To enable children to understand and use library resources.

• To enable children to understand and use ICT resources.

 

What does this look like at Holy Trinity?

• Structured early learning programme, supported by ‘Floppy's Phonics’, which is taught in EYFS and Key Stage 1.

• Guided Reading Sessions

• Shared Reading (Whole class Texts)

• Independent/Quiet Reading

• Reading across the curriculum linked to stimulating topics.

• Reading to support/inform writing

• Visits to and from authors and illustrators

• Creating a language rich environment with well presented displays and word banks

• A wide range of reading material

 

Guided Reading

Guided reading is used to develop comprehension skills.  Once children have been assessed, the teacher can be confident that the texts that they read are instructional.  As a result, the teacher can use guided sessions to focus on encouraging the children to read independently, so spending the time in the session on discussion of the text.

 

Within KS1, children do two guided reading sessions a week.

Within KS2, children do one guided reading session a week.

 

Individual Reading

At Holy Trinity, we see the value in individual reading, both supported and independent. Opportunities are provided, in school, for independent reading and children are encouraged to visit the library, at least once a fortnight, to choose a book that they can read at home.  For those children reading within the ‘banded books’, they are encouraged to choose a book within their particular band.  

 

In EYFS and KS1, teachers keep a record of the books that individual children have read, either to a teacher, a TA or to a volunteer.  We aim to ensure that all children should read to an adult, individually, twice a week (more frequently, if the child is struggling).  Once readers have attained a sound degree of fluency and comprehension, they become ‘Free Readers’ and are awarded a certificate.  At this point, children are given a reading record in which they can write details of the book that they are reading.  They will no longer read individually, however, in KS1, they will continue to take part in two guided reading sessions a week. 

 

Within EYFS and KS1, children will work through the ‘Floppy’s Phonics’ scheme as part of their individual and guided reading. However, a teacher and TA may feel that a child would benefit from a sideways move in reading material. This may be to work on a child’s decoding skills or to work on comprehension skills.

Every classroom has a wide range of reading material available for all children.

• Each child has a reading record which is up-dated by the teacher

• A School/Home Reading record book (or Reading Diary) will also be used for parents to make comments in

 

The school welcomes a number of volunteers who come to hear individual children read.