Brookfield Community Primary School

Intent, Implementation and Impact Statement: Reading

September 2020

INTENT

At Brookfield Community Primary School we believe that all children should have the opportunity to be fluent, confident readers who are able to successfully comprehend and understand a wide range of texts. We want children to develop a love of reading, a good knowledge of a range of authors, and be able to understand more about the world in which they live through the knowledge they gain from texts. By the end of their time at primary school, all children should be able to read fluently, and with confidence, in any subject in their forthcoming secondary education. We do not put ceilings on what children can achieve in reading and we do not hold pre-conceptions about any child’s ability to make progress. We understand the importance of parents and carers in supporting their children to develop both word reading and comprehension skills, and so we want to encourage a home-school partnership which enables parents and carers to understand how to enhance the skills being taught in school through good quality texts.

IMPLEMENTATION

We teach phonics and reading skills as whole class lessons, so that all children have access to the age related skills and knowledge contained in the National Curriculum. Within lessons, teachers and teaching assistants target support for slower graspers to enable them to achieve at an age-related level wherever possible. Rapid graspers are also given opportunities to demonstrate a greater depth of understanding through extended answers, targeted questioning requiring more reasoned answers and making greater links across and between texts.

We encourage reading for pleasure through children having a choice of challenging and enriching texts, alongside their reading book, as well as building in time for children to read independently and as part of a group. All children have daily opportunities to read a variety of material in school, including regularly with an adult.

Phonics: Early Years and Key Stage 1
Children are taught as a whole class, focussing on individual sounds, groups of sounds and common exception words within different ‘phases’ following the Read Write Inc programme. Slower graspers are given additional support from teachers and teaching assistants, either within the small group lessons or as part of planned interventions that take place in addition to the lesson. During the Summer Term in Year 1, pupils undertake a Phonics Screening Test which assesses their ability to apply what they have learnt. Pupils who do not pass their Phonics Screening Test continue to have intervention to support the acquisition of these key skills.

Whole School Reading Scheme
At Brookfield Primary School children in EYFS and KS1 are allocated books form the Read Write Inc. scheme.  These books are fully phonically decodable and match the colour group that the children have been assessed as working within.  Electronic versions of these books are also available for reading at home.

Children in KS2 have a range of reading materials from different schemes to read.  This enables them to read a variety of quality texts from quality publishers such as Oxford Reading Tree, Oxford University Press, Collins and Project X.

The scheme is structured to ensure that children have access to a wide range of texts, and allows for pupils to develop their skills within a level before moving to the next level. All pupils have a home-reading record which they are encouraged to take home daily. Parents and carers are encouraged to add comments to the home-reading records.

Assessment
Teachers will use their professional judgement to determine whether a child is working within age-related expectations, above or below. They will base their judgements for the most part on the quality of the written outcomes children have produced after structured teaching within the agreed reading skills.
Teachers complete the NFER reading assessments each term to provide another piece of evidence to support their assessment judgement. If tests are used, every care is taken to ensure that children are prepared appropriately for the test, and any barriers to accessing them is removed.

IMPACT

Regardless of background, ability or additional needs, by the time children leave Brookfield Community Primary School they will:

• Be enthusiastic and motivated readers who are confident and enjoy reading a wide variety of text types
• Have the skills to decode words in order to be able to read fluently with a secure understanding of what they have read
• Be ready to read in any subject in their forthcoming secondary education
• Be inspired by literature and read for pleasure
• The % of children working at ARE within each year group will be at least in line with national averages
• There will be no significant gaps in the progress of different groups of children (e.g. disadvantaged vs non-disadvantaged)