Reading

Reading for pleasure

Vision for Reading

At Dove Bank we focus on developing a love of reading for pleasure.

We aim to do this through a rigorous and sequential approach to the reading curriculum, which develops pupils' fluency and word recognition, ensures they gain an understanding of what they read and introduces them to a high number of quality-rich and enjoyable texts.

This is done by starting with our Monster Phonics programme from EYFS with carefully matched reading books, through to our Big Cat Collins books, supplemented by high-quality texts from our school library.

Reading has the highest priority in all aspects of the curriculum.

What’s New?

As a school we have invested heavily in new, exciting and enjoyable books for the children.

Every child is now closely matched to a reading book at any appropriate phonics phase.

We have begun to conduct termly fluency tests carried out by the English Lead Teacher across the whole school.

Results from these are then used to inform class teachers of the next steps for each child.

We also use VIPERS as a structure to teach comprehension skills.

We also run a book club to inspire a love of reading amongst some of our disadvantaged children.

Subject Leader Biography

My name is Mrs Heath and I am so excited to see children at Dove Bank learn to read and develop fluency.

It is a particular joy to conduct the fluency tests and see how the children progress in fluency so rapidly through the school.

I enjoy doing the book club and inspiring a love of reading to the children who attend.

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Subject priorities

To ensure that children are closely to books based on their phonic knowledge, allowing them to be well supported and make rapid progress.

To ensure that children are explicitly taught key reading skills, such as decoding, segmenting and blending through phonics, and retrieval, interpretation and vocabulary through our school-wide reading plan.

To ensure that children are introduced to a range of high quality texts, making reading enjoyable and encouraging them to read for pleasure.

Curriculum Statement

Intent

Reading lies at the heart of the curriculum at Dove Bank.

We are dedicated to enabling our pupils to become lifelong readers and we believe reading is key not only for academic success, but for enjoyment too. 

Our intention is for our reading curriculum to positively influence all other areas of learning, particularly writing.  

Implementation

Children take part in Guided Reading lessons, where they are exposed to a range of different texts and can demonstrate their understanding and thinking behind these. 

We have an excellent library and a wide range of reading books in every classroom. All children choose a book to take home from the library and have reading book closely matched to their phonics lessons that is changed frequently.   

Each classroom has a selection of books which are directly linked to the class topic. This offers opportunities for pupils to apply their reading skills across the curriculum.  

Children are read to each day by their class teacher. These books are carefully chosen to extend children’s vocabulary and introduce them to a wider context of the world.   

Children have the opportunity to take part in ‘Reading Buddies’, in which children mix with other children from different year groups and share a book together.  

Children who struggle to make progress in reading due to gaps in phonic knowledge, are monitored closely and given intervention lessons based on our Monster Phonics Programme. 

We have a very popular Book Club to inspire reading for pleasure and book sharing amongst the children. 

Impact

By the time children leave Dove Bank, they are competent readers who can recommend books to their peers, have a thirst for reading a range of genres including poetry, and participate in discussions about books, including evaluating an author’s use of language and the impact this can have on the reader. 

They can also read books to enhance their knowledge and understanding of all subjects on the curriculum, and communicate their research to a wider audience. 

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