Reading & Phonics

Children are taught the very basics of reading at a very early age – you are never too young to enjoy a good story, and even our three-year-olds have books, toys, teddies. puppets and puzzles that will help them to love stories and language. Our nursery children are also taught to recognise sounds in words and around them through games, songs and rhymes.

Alongside the phonics teaching, we encourage children to love stories, books, authors, poetry and plays. We have lots of ways that parents and children can borrow books and story sacks to share at home. We have a beautiful library which children can visit, as well as lovely books in the classroom for them to read.

Each half term, classes have a focus novel that they study through drama, role-play, text analysis and writing in role. This is often linked to the topic that the class are learning about. Alongside this, the class will have daily story sessions, as well as opportunities to explore related fiction, non-fiction and poetry that further supports the whole class text.

Children are encouraged to read at home through our “Five a Week” campaign. We want children to read at home at least five times a week, to help them become good readers who enjoy a wide range of books.

Opportunities for reading

Pupils read regularly in all areas of the curriculum and in every part of the school day through:

Whole Class Text Study – English lessons are taught through a quality text which is chosen carefully by the Class Teacher; across the year, the texts are chosen due to the many opportunities of vocabulary development they offer. Children will engage in many reading activities which will promote a deeper comprehension of the text before pausing the book study to embark on a sequence of work which results in a written outcome, all linked to the text.

Guided Reading – Teachers work with small groups of pupils to teach specific and targeted reading skills in a book that is sufficiently challenging.

Reading Across the Curriculum – Pupils read a range of books linked to other areas of their learning. There is very much a focus on ‘reading to learn’ across foundation curriculum areas, with children engaging in wider research, both online and through fiction and non-fiction texts.

Story Time – Throughout the whole school, books are read to pupils for them to hear good examples of reading aloud and to develop an enthusiasm for reading books themselves.

We are supported by a team of volunteers who enhance our reading provision every week hearing our vulnerable readers. We recognise the importance of providing regular opportunities for all children to read aloud to an adult, and any children who are not read with at home regularly are prioritised for 1:1 and small group reading in school.

One-to-one reading occurs in Reception and vulnerable readers are identified in each class to ensure reading progression and a love of reading. Throughout KS1, reading is taught through group reading activities. These activities include reading with a teacher or teaching assistant and written comprehensions. KS2 are taught through whole-class reading. During the reading sessions, there is an emphasis on vocabulary, the retrieval of facts and inference. Novels are used to teach reading, as well as a range of non-fiction texts. These texts are carefully chosen to ensure that there is progression and challenge across the school. At Billingborough, we aim to develop a love of reading, so children are encouraged to read for pleasure at home and school. Teachers read a variety of high-quality texts to the children on a regular basis.

Home Reading

In EYFS and KS1 children follow the reading scheme. They are given books from the scheme to take home to read. Children are also able to choose a book that interests them to read at home. Class teachers monitor how often children read at home and support any children who are not regularly reading.

In KS2, children complete their reading records / homework diaries when they have read at home. We encourage all of the children to read at home for 20 minutes, five times a week.

Reading for pleasure

At Billingborough Primary School we are continuing our drive to encourage more children to read for pleasure. Research shows a positive link between reading frequency and enjoyment and educational attainment. Furthermore, reading for pleasure has positive emotional and social benefits, improves text comprehension and grammar skills and increases general knowledge. We have many initiatives that will be taking place in school over this academic year to encourage reading for pleasure.

– Drop Everything and Read – daily reading aloud in class from a range of texts.
– ‘I am reading’  – teachers will share with their class the books they are reading and why they are enjoying them.
– Book Week.
– Author visits.

Our key principles for developing reading for pleasure are:

– Developing an ethos and an environment that excites, enthuses, inspires and values.
– High quality texts with depth and interest in story, character, illustration, vocabulary, structure and subject matter.
– A read aloud programme.
– Teachers who are knowledgeable about children’s literature.
– Creating a community of readers with opportunities to share responses and opinions.
– Planning for talking about books and stories, providing structures within which to do this.
– Understanding the importance of illustration in reading both in terms of creating a text and responding to a text.
– Using drama and role play to help children to understand and access texts.
– Working with authors and author/illustrators to understand the process of creating books.
– Using literature beyond the literacy lesson – cross-curricular planning with quality literature as the starting point.

Things you can do at home

– Ensure your child reads at least 5 times per week and record their reading in their Reading Record or Homework Diary.
– Talk about what books they are currently reading.
– Ask questions when listening to your child read aloud (please see our school website for two very helpful resources on questions to ask your child when reading).
– Read books to your child / read books together.
– Visit local libraries and bookshops.