"Those who love reading have everything within their reach."~ William Godwin

 At Kirkby on Bain CE Primary School, we are dedicated to ensuring that our children love to read. We are committed to encourage children to read for pleasure, relaxation and learning; doing so with fluency and confidence. Primarily, we want our children to be readers. We encourage this using a range of strategies, inspiring the whole school community to be involved. 

Reading is at the heart of our school.

 'Reading Explained,' (a document for Parents) here.

Aims:

• To have consistent practice, progression and continuity in the teaching and learning of phonics throughout the school with a focus on quality first teaching.

• To ensure that the teaching of phonics is consistent and centred around the rehearsal of application.

• To provide a language rich environment that encourages and develops their articulation, language and expression starting from their first day and continuing throughout the school.

• For children to learn to read and write all 44 phonemes in the English language and the variety of ways to spell them.

• To ensure that systematic synthetic phonics is the first approach pupils use to help with their reading and spelling. To have robust assessment procedures to check progress and identify pupils in need of intervention.

• For children to apply their phonic knowledge in their reading and writing in both child-led and adult-led endeavours.

• To ensure children are explicitly taught how to identify common exception words.

• For pupils to develop a love of reading and enjoy reading for pleasure, confidently across a range of genres for a variety of reasons.

• To develop a good understanding of texts they are reading (comprehension) and to read aloud with fluency and prosody.

Our Approach to the Teaching of Reading:

We remain committed to the teaching of early reading using our Systematic, Synthetic, Phonics Programme.  See our Phonics page for more information about our approach to phonics teaching.

Once children have developed their decoding skills, we teach and rehearse reading with fluency. Reading with prosody is the key to good comprehension and a love of reading. Therefore, the goal is that all children will read with prosody at the earliest possible time for them as an individual.

EYFS and KS1:

• Children are heard read 1:1 by an adult in EYFS and Y1 two-three times per week and at least once per week in Y2. Our readers at the earliest stages and those who find it difficult, are heard read daily, 1:1 with an adult who is trained in the teaching of our phonics programme. 

• Children take part in Whole Class Reading sessions, using DERICSVP as a strategy to cover all elements of the teaching of reading.

D (Decode)      E (Explain)      R (Retrieve)     I (Interpret)     C (Author’s Choice) 

S (Sequence) V (Vocabulary)   P (Predict)

• 'Fluency and Prosody' sessions take place as whole class for six week blocks during Autumn Term. Fluency and Prosody sessions continue as interventions for children who need it throughout the whole year. We believe that reading with fluency and prosody is the key to ensuring that children read for understanding and pleasure.  

KS2:

• Children at the earliest stages of reading and those who have Special Educational Needs are heard read daily, 1:1 with an adult who is trained in our school's phonics programme. We understand that Early Readers can be any age and as a result, it is essential that ALL staff are experts in the teaching of early reading.
• Children take part in Whole Class Reading sessions using VIPERS as a strategy to cover all elements of the teaching of reading.

    V (Vocaulary)   I (Infer)   P (Predict)   E (Explain)   R (Retrieve)  S (Sequence/Summarise)

• 'Fluency and Prosody' sessions take place in either small groups or whole class as required throughout the year. We believe that reading with fluency and prosody is the key to ensuring that children read for understanding and pleasure.  

Reading Books:

We carefully select the appropriate reading books for each child to take home; books that are the correct level for them to rehearse decoding skills according to the phonemes covered/area where further rehearsal is needed. We work hard to ensure the children take books home where skills are rehearsed and books are enjoyed.  Books are organised in developmental order to ensure they match our carefully planned Systematic Synthetic Phonics Programme.

Book Banded Real Books:

From Y1 onwards (where appropriate), children have access to 'real' books that have been carefully organised into developmental book band colours (from Turquoise - Black). The children take part in a half termly, 1:1 assessment which provides teachers with a reading age. The reading age, alongside teacher knowledge of each, individual child's development, allows for children to work within a coloured book band. The book bands are full of exciting, inviting, new and classic literature to develop their reading ability and most importantly, their love of reading.

Selecting High Quality Texts:

Central to our philosophy in ensuring texts are rich in vocabulary and structure, teachers select high quality books as part of our English curriculum. To inspire a love of reading, we seek to review and regularly update the texts we use and have on offer to support and engage children in the teaching of reading and writing. As part of our ‘reading for pleasure’ journey, we have adopted Pie Corbett’s Reading Spine to ensure that our children have a rich, varied and essential experience of books throughout their journey from EYFS to Year 6. Teachers have carefully chosen the books they will read with their class to ensure the SLT can monitor the quality of texts being used with the children. Our Poetry Spine allows children the opportunity to explore a wide range of Poetry for enjoyment and to develop their performance for our whole school Poetry Recitals. 

Our School Library:

We have a library that is well used by the whole school. Each class has an allocated weekly slot to ensure reading for pleasure is at the forefront of our experience in school. We all make use of the library, providing a comfortable and relaxing place to read.