Reading

Link Governor: Lisa Lackie

Intent

A Holy Family Reader reads accurately, fluently, and with understanding. They explore a wide range of texts—including fiction, non-fiction, and poetry by various authors—reading with expression and confidence. Along the way, they develop a rich vocabulary, a strong grasp of grammar, and a deep appreciation for language. Most importantly, they foster a lifelong love of reading that empowers them to explore any opportunity in their future.

At Holy Family, our reading curriculum is vibrant and diverse. Children enjoy daily guided or whole-class reading lessons, daily class stories, independent reading time, 'Drop Everything and Read!' sessions, Book Week, book buddies, reading volunteers, visits to the 'Reading Portal,' performances, and much more!

We also ensure that our curriculum includes literature that reflects and reinforces the values of Catholic Social Teaching. Children are encouraged to identify and explore these themes in all the texts they encounter, deepening their understanding of the values.

For more details on how we implement our reading curriculum at Holy Family and its impact on our pupils, please see the tabs below.

Reading Progression

Early Reading & Phonics

Implementation

At Holy Family, we use Unlocking Letters and Sounds as our phonics programme which was validated by the DfE in December 2021.

Lessons

At Holy Family, phonics lessons take place first thing in the morning for 30 minutes. All lessons follow the same structure of revisit - teach - practise - apply - revise.

We begin teaching phonics in the first few weeks of term 1 in Reception and children make rapid progress in their reading journey. Children begin to learn the main phonemes heard in the English Language and how they can be represented, as well as learning ‘Common Exception’ words for Phases 2, 3 and 4. They use these phonemes to read and write simple words, captions and sentences. Children leave Reception being able to apply the phonemes taught within Phase 2, 3 and 4.

In Year 1 through Phase 5a, b and c, they learn the alternative spellings and pronunciations for the graphemes and additional Common Exception Words. By the end of Year 1, our children will have mastered using phonics to decode and blend when reading and segment when spelling. In Year 1 all children are screened using the national Phonics Screening Check.

In Year 2, phonics continues to be revisited to ensure mastery of the phonetic code and any child who does not meet age related expectations will continue to receive support to close identified gaps.

Please see the tabs to the right for example plans and useful documents to support each phase.

Interventions

To ensure no child is left behind at any point in the progression of this scheme, children are assessed short termly and supported to keep up through bespoke 1-1 interventions. These include GPC recognition and blending and segmenting interventions. The lowest attaining 20% of pupils are closely monitored to ensure these interventions have the intended impact.

Guided Reading

At Holy Family we promote a 'phonics first' approach and in our guided reading sessions at school texts are very closely matched to a child's current phonics knowledge so that every child can experience real success in their reading. In these crucial early stages of reading we use books from Ransom Reading Stars Phonics to ensure fidelity to the Unlocking Letters and Sounds programme we follow.

Homework

Phonics homework is sent home after learning each new phoneme to ensure it is consolidated. A Google Drive link is shared on each EYFS/Key Stage 1 Class Dojo page and children upload their homework to their portfolios.
We use ‘Collins Big Cat Phonics for Letters and Sounds’ books in our book scheme. Children are sent home with one book each week that matches their phonic knowledge.
Children also take home a 'reading for pleasure' book from their class libraries to help foster a love of reading.
Word pots are sent home to support segmenting and blending. These are changed as and when the children are able to read the words with fluency.
‘Common Exception’ word booklets are also sent home to support reading, spelling and writing.

Impact

Children’s progress in phonics and early reading is continually reviewed through daily assessment for learning, short-termly phonic assessments and evidence from their reading and writing. Through these, teachers identify which children would benefit from daily phonics interventions. Attainment in phonics and early reading is measured by the Phonics Screening Check at the end of Year 1 and using the statutory assessments at the end of Key Stage One. These results are measured against the reading attainment of children nationally. However, we firmly believe that reading is the key to all learning and so the impact of our reading curriculum goes beyond the results of the statutory assessments. By teaching high quality phonics and early reading, we give all children the opportunity to enter the magical worlds that books open up to them. We promote reading for pleasure as part of our reading curriculum. Children are encouraged to develop their own love of genres and authors and to review their books objectively. This enhances a deep love of literature across a range of genres, cultures and styles.

Guided & Whole Class Reading

Implementation

We use the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) statutory framework for Reception and the National Curriculum from Y1-Y6 to teach reading at Holy Family.

Guided Reading - EYFS and KS1 (up until phonics is secured)

Guided Reading is taught daily using a 2-week cycle. The children are split into reading ability groups. One group reads with the class teacher using books from Ransom Reading Stars Phonics to ensure complete fidelity to the Unlocking Letters and Sounds scheme we follow. The other groups participate in independent reading activities e.g. lowest 20% readers with TA; word pots; 'Drop Everything and Read!' sessions where the children choose books from their in-class library to read for pleasure.

With the class teacher the children will:

WEEK 1: Modelled Reading

Phonemes and common exception words that the children will encounter in the book are revisited and reviewed. Vocabulary that may be unfamiliar to the children is introduced and meaning is discussed. The teacher leads a short introduction to the book: reading the title, discussing what characters might be in the book and predictions using the front cover. The teacher will read the book and the children will track along with their fingers - left to right. The teacher will model reading with prosody, using punctuation appropriately. The children will be encouraged to join in with repeated phrases exploring prosody in reading themselves. The book is then discussed as a group making connections book-to-self, book-to-world and book-to-book’.

WEEK 2: Independent Reading

Phonemes, common exception words and vocabulary from the previous session are revisited. The children then read aloud as a whole group (This is often done back-to-back). The teacher travels around the group listening to each individual child and provides them with appropriate feedback and support to read with fluency and prosody. Discussions continue as per WEEK 1 and children answer comprehension questions verbally about what they have read.

Whole Class Reading - KS2 (or when phonics is secured)

Teachers provide a daily 30-minute reading session using an age-appropriate text. On one day, the children explore a fluency lesson using their class book. During this lesson they learn to use prosody in their reading and also how to use punctuation etc. On day two and three, the class explores their class book and on day four and five they explore a range of genres. At the start of every lesson, teachers introduce/review vocabulary. Moving on to reading the extract as a class, every child is provided with an extract and read along, tracking with their fingers/ruler. Then the children answer questions, staying in the story where possible.

Impact

Children’s progress in reading is continually reviewed through phonic assessments, assessing against the National Curriculum and our own Reading Progression, our Holy Family Reading assessments – which were created using the ‘The Book Band Guide’ by BookLife –, regular one-to-one reading, the Phonics Screening Check at the end of Year 1 and using the statutory assessments at the end of Key Stage One and Two. These results are measured against the reading attainment of children nationally. However, we firmly believe that reading is the key to all learning and so the impact of our reading curriculum goes beyond the results of the statutory assessments. By teaching high quality phonics and early reading, we give all children the opportunity to enter the magical worlds that books open up to them. We promote reading for pleasure as part of our reading curriculum. Children are encouraged to develop their own love of genres and authors and to review their books objectively. This enhances a deep love of literature across a range of genres, cultures and styles.

Reading for Pleasure & Reading at Home

Intent

It is important that children are motivated to read at home regularly; when their reading miles increase, so does their fluency and stamina which in turn increases their enjoyment of reading. Therefore, the link between children's motivation to read and reading for pleasure is reciprocal. Furthermore, at Holy Family Primary School, we know that reading for pleasure is beneficial - not only for reading outcomes but - for the wide learning enjoyment and mental wellbeing. For this reason, we work hard to foster a love of independent reading and build communities of engaged readers. We understand the significance of parents and carers in supporting their children to develop both word reading and comprehension skills, so we endeavour to build a home-school partnership which enables parents and carers to have the confidence to support their children to read at home.

Implementation

New reading books added to the book scheme
Use of BoomReader - online reading records
Awarding Dojo points for nights read
High-quality daily class book
100 nights reading celebrated with a book of their choice
Bookmarks to support pupils with book talk at home - KS2
Top Tips to support parents with book talk at home - EYFS/KS1
Training videos/workshops for parents and carers
Visits to the 'Reading Portal'
Inviting book corners
Book Week
Performances
Book buddies
Drop Everything and Read sessions
Trained parent reading volunteers
Use of online libraries Oxford Owl, Get Epic
Participating in local and national reading initiatives
Visits to local libraries

Impact

Children’s progress in reading is continually reviewed through phonic assessments, assessed against the National Curriculum and our own Reading Progression, our Holy Family Reading assessments – which were created using the ‘The Book Band Guide’ by BookLife –, regular one-to-one reading, the Phonics Screening Test at the end of Year 1 and using the statutory assessments at the end of Key Stage One and Two. These results are measured against the reading attainment of children nationally. However, we firmly believe that reading is the key to all learning and so the impact of our reading curriculum goes beyond the results of the statutory assessments. By teaching high quality phonics and early reading, we give all children the opportunity to enter the magical worlds that books open up to them. We promote reading for pleasure as part of our reading curriculum. Children are encouraged to develop their own love of genres and authors and to review their books objectively. This enhances a deep love of literature across a range of genres, cultures and styles. Pupil voice at Holy Family Primary School also shows the impact reading has on our children.