Reading at High Spen Primary School

Reading is such a fundamental skill.  It brings us joy and fulfilment as well as access to a wide range of opportunities throughout life.  At High Spen Primary School, we therefore do all we can to ensure all children read fluently and with confidence by the time they leave us for secondary school.

Our curriculum for reading consists of two parts: word reading and comprehension. Different kinds of teaching are needed for each.

Word reading

Skilled word reading involves speedy decoding and automatic recognition of words.

For this, we use our Essential Letters and Sounds (ELS) programme. Children begin this in the first week of Reception (following time spent listening to and producing sounds, including specific voice sounds, and oral blending and segmenting in Nursery). Each week, they learn new letter-sound correspondences and how to read these in words. They bring home a Decodable Reader to practise the letters and sounds they have learned. Children will normally have completed this programme by the end of Year 1. They use the rest of Year 1 and Year 2 to practise and apply their knowledge within their reading to become more fluent.

Parents, carers and keen grandmas and grandads can use the following videos to brush up on their letter sounds and provide consistency for the children.

• Phase 2 Sounds
• Phase 3 Sounds

Health warning – Tara, who appears in the video, is a wonderful force of nature so feel free to do three at a time and press pause whilst you practice (it is how Mr Firth does it!). Also, please do not be tempted to use the videos with the children or to whizz ahead and cover sounds they have not covered yet. ELS provides a carefully crafted pathway through phonic decoding and it is important that the children move through sounds in line with daily teaching. Working together, as we do, we feel ELS offers children the structure to decode well, quickly and confidently.

 

Comprehension

In this second area, the focus is on understanding and making sense of what is read, as well as developing pleasure and interest in reading. We develop these skills and attitudes through high quality discussion and through reading a range of stories, poems and non-fiction. In Early Years and Years 1 and 2, we use quality texts from our Baskets of Books for this in addition to other books within our wider curriculum. In Years 3 to 6, our Featured Authors programme introduces children to twelve top authors and their writing. The aim is to build children’s knowledge of writers and genres so that they are better able to make their own choices about what they read. To support children’s acquisition of specific comprehension skills, we use Close
Reading from Year 2 onwards. This resource uses carefully selected texts and text-marking strategies to build understanding of key aspects such as text structure, inference and context. To keep up a buzz around books and foster a love of reading, we also use our Books to Treasure collections, run Book Hunts around the village and make time to routinely visit our school library.  We also read together regularly as a class (every day in Early Years, Year 1 and Year 2).

 

A word about readers and books

As well as the Decodable Reader that children bring home when they start ELS, Reception and Years 1 and 2 children choose their own Book Band Reader (allowing them to explore and experience other texts).  The Book Bands help children to select readers at an appropriate level as they move through school and to develop their fluency and confidence.  In Years 3 to 6, some children may also get a Reading Plus account (we have limited licences). This gives access to an online reading app with a library of texts which supports fluency and comprehension. Once children are reading confidently and independently, we support them to make their own reading choices, widen their reading repertoire and share their views and responses with
others.

If you have any questions, or would like further information, about how we teach and develop reading at High Spen, please ask in school. We will be delighted to share more and support you at home in any way we can.