Reading

Why is Reading so important?

At Rowanfield Junior School our aim is that by the end of their primary education all children are able to read fluently and with confidence. Evidence shows that engagement in reading has the biggest impact on children’s future success. For this to happen, they need to learn to read as fluently as possible and be motivated to continue reading. We want children to have a love for reading that will stay with them for a lifetime.

What does reading look like at Rowanfield Junior School? 

Reading Curriculum Overview

We would love children to read daily at home. However, our minimum expectation is that children will read at least 4 times a week. 

We want to encourage children to read at home as much as they can to help them develop a love for reading and allow them to practise the skills they are learning in school. Here are some ways you can help your child with reading more at home:

Class Reader 

Children have a daily class reader slot. Teachers modelling reading aloud fosters positive attitudes, enhances pupils’ motivation to read and develops vocabulary and knowledge. Our reading spine exposes children to a range of books, authors and genres that they might not choose to read for themselves. It also contributes to their fluency, as they listen to the teacher bring a text to life. Below is our school reading spine so you can see what books your children will be reading across the year. 

Love for Reading

Look at all of the way we promote a love for reading in our school...

How do we teach reading at Rowanfield Junior School?

 The three key components in supporting children with reading are: 

Phonics in KS2

As a school we recognise that phonic knowledge is an important component of reading. Some children in KS2 may need additional support with their phonological knowledge as it is key to children becoming a confident, fluent readers. Where a need is identified, we are relentless with our additional support for phonics so all children are able to read as quickly as possible. Please follow the link to find out more about our chosen phonics programme, ELS (Essential Letters and Sounds)        Essential Letters and Sounds  

Fluency 

Fluent decoding allows us to understand what we read. As children gain fluency, their motivation increases: they start to enjoy reading more and are willing to do more of it (DFE, 2023). Readers' Theatre is a strategy we use to help children really unpick, understand and develop their fluency when reading aloud.

See a Readers' Theatre session in action below:

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These are some of the strategies we encourage children to use when reading aloud. Please encourage your child to think about which strategies would be appropriate when reading at home. 

Comprehension

Reading is one of the principal ways we learn new things. So, a key way to improve comprehension is for pupils to read a lot and read widely. Teachers support reading comprehension strategies through modelling and support children to understand the texts they read. Teachers develop reading strategies including:

-Prediction

-Questioning

-Clarifying

-Summarising

-Activating Prior Knowledge  

Assessment in Reading

Reading can be assessed in many different ways.

Formative assessment can be done through:

• Listening to children read
• Asking them questions
• Having a group discussion
• Using the fluency matrix
• Accelerated reader quizzes

Summative assessment is done through:

• STAR Reader (Reading Age and Diagnostic)
• SATs Reading Tests (Year 6)
• Phonics Assessments
• Fluency Assessments

However, these assessments are not be used in isolation to form a judgement of a child’s reading. All aspects and forms of evidence are taken into account in order to build a picture and assess against the year group expectations for reading.

Accelerated Reader

Here at Rowanfield Junior School, we use an online system call Accelerated Reader. Accelerated Reader motivates children to read more through engaging with quizzes, goal setting, and personalised recommendations. We use their assessment tool of STAR Reader to give teachers children’s reading age and ZPD (zone proximal development). This supports children with selecting appropriate books.

Important Documents 

To find the National Curriculum for KS1 and KS1 please click below.

National Curriculum

To find the Reading Framework (DFE 2023) please click below.  

Reading Framework