Intent

At South Avenue, our curriculum is designed with the intent that each child becomes a caring, confident and curious young person with a passion for learning and achieving. It is our belief that reading is the key to unlocking this passion and curiosity for the world and that reading can open the door to a successful and happy future for our children. Our curriculum is carefully designed to ensure that all children leave the school with the ability to read, no matter where their starting point in their journey to reading may have been. In KS1, children learn to read so that in KS2, they can read to learn: as the Rose Review stated, “learning to read progresses to reading, effortlessly, to learn.” Without the initial skill of reading, children will be unable to access the joy of learning, so our primary focus is supporting all children not only to read but to develop a love of reading.

Implementation

Children’s development of reading is supported every day by access to a variety of high-quality texts which are matched to their reading level and with a degree of challenge; opportunities to read independently and to teachers, teaching assistants and volunteers; modelled reading by class teachers during daily read aloud sessions; the teaching of phonics in early years; and finally, through class guided reading sessions to develop comprehension skills. Additionally, children are exposed to high quality texts when they explore topics in science, computing and all foundation subjects.

We implement the teaching of reading through a wide range of reading opportunities that include:

• Shared and guided reading in EYFS   
• Whole class reading lessons starting in EYFS including work around vocabulary, comprehension and fluency and with skills-based focus using ERICS
• Guided reading building to structured, whole class reading lessons in year one upwards
• Daily high-quality phonics lessons in EYFS and KS1 and phonics interventions in KS2 where appropriate.
• Using phonics knowledge in real life contexts
• Applying phonic skills in cross curricular contexts
• Independent reading
• Home/school reading
• Hearing books read aloud daily
• Reading in other subjects including ICT texts for wider research
• Reading for pleasure time
• Quality texts linked to different subjects throughout curriculum
• Visiting authors, enrichment days/week

How is reading taught at South Avenue?

Phonics
Phonics is taught daily in EYFS and Key Stage 1 and discretely through continuous and enhanced provision.

Whole class reading
Children are provided with opportunities to listen to reading and comment on books and stories during whole class sessions. This is teacher led and the children interact and respond to differentiated questions, often during English lessons but also across the curriculum. Most classes use shared texts to base their English workaround.

Shared reading
During English lessons the children are given a variety of text types as a stimulus for writing. The teacher and children share the text and the teacher models as an expert reader, drawing out the key elements of the content.

Guided Reading
Guided Reading takes place as a whole-class or in small groups, with a teacher or teaching assistant, and focuses on developing children’s ability to become independent readers, thinkers and learners. In our guided reading sessions, we ensure the children are reading fiction and non-fiction texts which extend and challenge.

Guided Reading sessions focus on these key skills for reading:

EXPLAIN | RETRIEVE | INTERPRET | CHOICE

Impact

• One of our greatest impacts of reading goes further than our statutory assessment results. Children enjoy reading and show a genuine love for a variety of texts across different genres and formats.  This allows children to progress in their education and with the best possible skills for their lifelong learning journey.  
• Through the teaching of systematic phonics, exposure to high standards of vocabulary and teaching of comprehension skills, our aim is for children to become fluent and confident readers. We want children to access the wider curriculum and apply their knowledge and experience throughout the curriculum, whilst also allowing children access to stories and texts they can enjoy and engage in for pleasure and enjoyment.  
• Impact is shown through pupil voice, termly assessments, teacher’s daily assessment for learning and knowledge of the children, consistent work in books across the curriculum, displays in the classrooms and corridors and home reading records and Accelerated Reader quizzes/reports. This is constantly reviewed and monitored to identify children who need extra support.  We use a variety of interventions to support these children to work towards all children reaching at least the expected levels in reading.
• Children will understand a range of question types: explain, retrieval, interpret and choice (ERIC).
• Children will be exposed to a variety of high-quality texts (linked to appropriate topics).
• The engagement with Accelerated Reader through individual reading targets (termly).
• Pupils aim to achieve 1 million words in order to receive an exclusive red polo shirt, highlighting their achievement.

End Points