Cale Green Primary SchoolReading Resources and Schemes
Reading Resources / Schemes at Cale Green Primary School
“So please, oh PLEASE, we beg, we pray, Go throw your TV set away,
And in its place, you can install, A lovely bookshelf on the wall."
Roald Dahl, ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’
AIMS
‘We shouldn’t teach great books we should teach a great love of reading’ B.F. Skinner
- To develop happy, healthy and curious learners who read confidently and independently
- To develop lifelong enjoyment and pleasure in reading
- To enable children to access all areas of the curriculum
- To enable children to access, understand and manage information
- To understand the meaning of what is read to them and what they read
- To respond to what they read and give opinions
- To understand and respond to the feelings that words can arouse, eg happiness, sadness, anger
- To understand that this experience allows us to make connections with other people and to develop empathy
- To walk through doors to the past, to the future, and to other worlds both real and imagined
As a community of readers, we expect all adults to model and communicate their love of reading. These are just some of the ways we can share this:
- Story time
- BEAR (Be excited about reading) ERIC (everybody reads in class)
- Shared and guided reading
- Library time- Homework/Library Club and timetabled
- Reading with individual children
In Early Years, the teaching of reading is based on the Prime area of learning Communication and Language and then the Specific area of learning related to reading. In KS1/2 the teaching of reading is based on the National Curriculum for English and what we know and believe is successful about teaching children to read.
In line with guidance from the framework for English our teaching objectives cover 4 key strands:
- Word reading- phonics remains at the heart of reading.
- Comprehension (both listening and reading) - greater emphasis on comprehension, with more continuity between year groups and an emphasis on working on more challenging texts.
- Reading for Pleasure- encouraging a love of reading is at the core with a greater emphasis on reading non-fiction (from Year 1) as well as fiction.
- Struggling readers- emphasis on using rigorous and systematic phonics programme.
Word reading skills and strategies
Every day each child will be engaged in
- Speaking, listening, reading and writing activities which allow them to explore and practice their phonic knowledge, blending and segmenting skills independently
- Phonics ability grouping will be used within Early Years and with Year 1 and 2. Phonics group will be used in Year 3, where necessary. This will follow careful analysis of current phonics data.
- An interactive multisensory phonics session
- Shared reading and/or writing led by the teacher to demonstrate reading and writing strategies (including phonics) in a meaningful way
- A rich and regular ‘Read Aloud’ programme (story time)
Shared reading
Every Day
The teacher models the reading process and the children are actively involved; listening to the text being read aloud, joining in and following the reading, and contributing to discussion and response. Children learn how to apply the knowledge and skills they are acquiring in daily word level work. The teacher leads discussion about the text to help children develop their understanding. Children learn how to interpret and make sense of what they read.
Guided or group reading
Daily activity
A teacher will work with a class or group on a text type for the week. The teacher will scaffold the learning by guiding children through the text and prompting them to apply what they’ve learnt in shared reading and other literacy activities. From Monday- Thursday children will have access to the same text- resulting in a thorough knowledge of the text and higher order reading skills can be developed. During Friday sessions, children will be exposed to a cold text which links closely to the text type studied that week and to a similar range of questions. Each new term will start with the exploration of a piece of poetry which aims to raise the profile of poetry across the school.
Every fourth week, Guided Reading sessions will be suspended to be replaced by individual Reading Interviews. This allows staff to have an in-depth conversation with each child about their reading habits at home, check the accuracy of their reading band etc.
Range
Pupils should be taught the knowledge, skills and understanding through the following ranges:
Literature:
- Stories & poems with familiar settings and those based on imaginary or fantasy worlds
- Stories, plays & poems by significant children’s authors
- Retellings of traditional folk & fairy stories
- Stories & poems from a range of cultures
- Stories, plays & poems with patterned & predictable language
- Stories & poems which are challenging, in terms of length and vocabulary
- Texts where the use of language benefits from being read aloud and reread
Non-fiction and non-literary texts:
- Print & ICT-based information texts
- Dictionaries, encyclopaedias & other reference materials
Texts
- Interactive white board resources; software and websites (see appendix 4)
- Big books – stored in library (see appendix)
- Reading books grouped into ‘book bands’; core scheme Oxford Reading Tree- Project X
- Guided Readers – ‘Reading Explorers’ scheme and a range of texts stored in the library
- Library books organised into fiction and non-fiction
- Class library books
- Book bingo
Where appropriate International New Arrivals are encouraged to read in home language when they arrive and this is valued.
Assessment
Children are assessed using:
- Success Criteria- clear and explicit (linked to curricular targets set termly)
- Observation of children
- Questioning (using questions linked to assessment focus during guided reading)
- Self assessment
- Discussing with a partner
- Verbal feedback from adult linked to success criteria
- Benchmarking assessment
- Individual pupil profile/ Benchmarking assessment (half termly to termly)
- Reading records (whenever children change books)
- Tracking for phonic skills - phonics books
Planning
All teachers use flipchart planning. Teachers save these in the Staff Shared Area. The subject leader is able to monitor and give feedback when required.
Staff have the autonomy to adjust the lengths of the units based on ongoing in class assessment, to ensure coverage and based on pupils' understanding.
Whilst recorded work is important to demonstrate understanding and allow for the application of new skills, there is no expectation that there will be recorded evidence for each lesson in pupils’ books. Where work has been recorded it will be marked using the symbols taken from the marking policy, this may also include self and peer assessment.
Children with SEND will work towards the same objectives with appropriate support. Those working well below the level of their peers will be working on a related objective.
Children who are more able will be working to deepen or broaden their understanding of the objective to enable them to make the greatest possible progress.
Children learning English as an additional language (EAL) will receive appropriate support to enable them to access the objective. Assisted technology is available for all children who require it which promotes digital skills and literacy.
Intervention
When a child is perceived as not reaching the expected level for their age group there are a range of interventions to support their development and fill the gap, these include
- S+L Language Link (Narrative therapy)
- Group tuition - Y6
- Leicestershire Inference Project- KS2
- Talking Partners - (EAL)
- Learning Support Service (LSS)
Reading at home
Each child takes at least one book home a day
Progression
-story sacks
-books with no words
-phonic readers
-book bands
-free reading
We recognise that children make better progress when they are supported at home and when there is good communication between child-school-home
We communicate with parents by:
- Home school reading diaries
- Parent Consultation Sessions
- Nursery & Reception intake evenings
- Phonics / Letters and Sounds workshops
- Reading Workshops
- Homework Guidance Booklets
Monitoring and Evaluation
The implementation of this policy will be monitored by the Head teacher and the Senior Leadership Team who will review children’s work annually.
The success of this policy will be evaluated be considering feedback from pupils, teachers, teaching assistants and parents. The SLT will be responsible for conducting this review.
Sarah McHugh and Hannah Foster,
English Subject Leaders
Summer 2025
To be reviewed summer 2026
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