Intent, Implementation and Impact statement for Reading

Intent

At Lady Elizabeth Hastings School, we believe that reading is an essential life skill and we are committed to enabling our children to become lifelong readers.

We will strive to foster a love of reading, enriching children’s learning through carefully designed teaching activities that use imaginative stories and thought-provoking texts.

We want our children to have the reading skills that enable them to develop their learning across the wider curriculum and lay the foundations for success in future lines of study and employment. We will take a consistent approach to the teaching of reading in order to make sure that children ‘keep up and catch up’.  We want the highest possible number of children to attain the expected standard or higher.

Implementation

Our children’s Reading Journey starts in Reception with a synthetic systematic phonics programme called Read, Write, Inc.  Children take a statutory assessment in phonics at the end of Year 1.  There is a system of differentiated phonics groups for those who need support to achieve the standard.  This continues into Year 2 if needed.

Lively phonic books are closely matched to their increasing knowledge of phonics and ‘tricky’ words and, as children re-read the stories, their fluency increases.  This approach is maintained until children reach sufficient fluency to move onto a book band pathway.  The wide range of books available within the book bands are intended to be stimulating and challenging.

Children are encouraged to read regularly at home to increase fluency.  For children for whom this is not possible, we create opportunities for teachers to listen to certain children read each day for a short period.

We use the School Library Service to supplement the range of books available in school.

Reading accuracy and fluency skills are taught through a Reading Workshop system from Reception through to Year 6.  Each class throughout school has a daily Reading Workshop session.  This session focuses on the key areas listed below.

VIPERS is an acronym to aid the recall of the 6 reading domains as part of the UK’s reading curriculum.  These are the key areas which we feel children need to know and understand in order to improve their comprehension of texts.

VIPERS stands for:

Vocabulary

Inference

Prediction

Explanation

Retrieval

Sequence or Summarise

The 6 domains focus on the comprehension aspect of reading and not the mechanics: decoding, fluency, prosody etc. 

Vocabulary: At Lady Elizabeth Hastings, we know that a child’s word knowledge is based on frequency, complexity, and meaning. As teachers, we know that a robust vocabulary supports reading comprehension and reinforces understanding of new and difficult texts.  Using a tiered approach to vocabulary instruction assists in the development of language acquisition and promotes a strong foundation for literacy.  Vocabulary acquisition is incorporated into Reading Workshop, but it is also woven through the wider curriculum.  Subject-related vocabulary is on classroom displays for children to use.

Impact

The systematic phonics programme ensures that most children pass the phonics check at the end of Year 1; those who do not are supported to pass at the end of Year 2.  This means that almost all children are reading at, or above, the expected level at the end of Key Stage 1 enabling them to fully access learning at Key Stage 2.

Reception children developing a love of reading.

Through the use Literacy Shed and other resources, our children experience a wide range of interesting, inspiring, challenging texts, such as:

The Tiger Who Came to Tea by Judith Kerr

The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson

The Iron Man by Ted Hughes

Lights on Cotton Rock by David Litchfield

Goodnight Mr Tom by Michelle Magorian

Snow Sister by Emma Carroll

How to Train Your Dragon by Cressida Cowell

We have independent, fluent and enthusiastic readers who read widely and frequently.  Children can justify their views independently about what they have read, as shown in the book reviews on display in Year 6 (Hastings class).

Impact on Assessment: Statutory tests and teacher assessment

Statutory Tests

End of Key Stage 1 and 2: currently these are not showing the progress we would like.  However, the implementation of the strategies outlined above will show impact over the next year.

Teacher Assessment: is showing improvement in most year groups, with interventions for children who need to catch up and keep up.

The impact of our Reading Journey should be that Year 6 pupils read sufficiently fluently and effortlessly, with an understanding at an age-appropriate interest level in readiness for secondary school.