Implementation

St Sebastian’s is committed to: establishing an appreciation and love of reading; nurturing our children to become accomplished and keen readers; and making use of every opportunity the curriculum offers, to teach the children to become life-long readers.

The school adopts trauma-informed practices to create a safe and supportive environment for all pupils. Inclusivity is at the heart of teaching strategies, ensuring that every child's individual needs are met. Adaptive teaching strategies are employed to cater to diverse learning styles and abilities, allowing all pupils to access and progress in reading.

Our school plans reading activities using the programmes of study from the National Curriculum. The programmes of study consist of 2 dimensions: word reading and comprehension (both listening and reading).

• Word reading skills: the speedy working out of the pronunciation of unfamiliar printed words (decoding) and the rapid recognition of familiar printed words, including ‘common exception words’. This is why phonics is emphasised in the early teaching of reading. At St Sebastian’s, we use the Read Write Inc Phonics Programme (RWI), starting in Nursery and continuing until children are fluent readers.
• Comprehension: Good comprehension draws from linguistic knowledge (vocabulary and grammar particularly) and on knowledge of the world. Comprehension skills develop through pupils’ experience of high-quality discussion with the teacher, as well as from reading and discussing a range of fiction, poetry and non-fiction.

We believe that all pupils must be encouraged to read widely across both fiction and non-fiction, to develop their knowledge of themselves and the world in which they live.

We do this through:

• Reading Curriculum: we plan units of English lessons around motivating books and rich texts. Good text-based, whole-class teaching provides many opportunities for learning and reinforcing in: word reading; comprehension; grammar and punctuation; vocabulary and spelling; spoken language; writing.
• Reading Skills (KS2): we provide daily sessions for children to encounter engaging texts that will resonate with their interests and capture their imagination. This helps to broaden the children’s experience, to form opinions about texts, books and authors and to use literary language confidently.
• Home Reading (EYFS & KS1): we believe that parents/carers have a vital role to play in helping their child (ren) enjoy and gain success in reading. Reading and sharing stories at home is one of the most important ways that parents can help their child to succeed. We encourage all parents to take the time to hear their child (ren) read and talk about books with them. Showing children that reading is both important and enjoyable at home, will have a positive impact on their attitudes and beliefs, and will instil in them a love of reading. We use home-school reading records to ensure regular communication and reinforce the partnership between home and school, in supporting a child’s reading. In Reception and Key Stage 1, pupils will receive RWI reading materials, e.g. sound books, Ditty sheets, phonetically decodable books. As children progress through our schools, they become increasingly fluent at reading and develop reading skills/strategies needed to read both for pleasure and to support their work in all areas of the curriculum. They will take home a wide variety of engaging books and genres, as they become self-reliant readers.
• Home Reading (KS2): Every term, children in KS2 are assessed using STAR Reading, to determine their zone of proximal development (ZPD). This enables the children to read a selection of books from our Accelerated Reader collection. Once the children have read a book, they are given the opportunity to complete an online quiz about it. This checks the child’s comprehension and knowledge of key vocabulary. KS2 children only access this when they have completed the Read Write Inc Phonics programme and have established reading accuracy, automaticity and prosody. KS2 children are engaged, motivated and independent in the choosing of texts to be read. We continue to use home-school reading records, which ensures regular communication and reinforces the partnership between home and school, in supporting a child’s reading for pleasure.
• Reading Plus (Y6): Year 6 pupils access this digital reading resource daily with their own unique login. They are able to choose from a variety of texts and read independently to establish the child’s reading rate (fluency). The texts that are available to children are rich in vocabulary and promote cultural capital. Children are tracked as they improve their fluency and comprehension. The children can access this resource at home and are encouraged to do so daily. Class staff monitor the engagement and progress of children regularly.
• Reading Aloud: sharing a novel / non-fiction text with a class is an important part of our reading curriculum. We have created a reading spine for every year group, with a selection of texts chosen to complement our wider curriculum. Listening to longer or more complex texts increases the children’s knowledge and understanding; and the rich vocabulary they encounter, helps to develop their reading comprehension. When the teacher reads aloud, it provides a model of expressive reading and the joy of sharing a story for sheer pleasure.
• Reading for Pleasure: all classes are engaged in many enjoyable reading activities, to ensure reading for pleasure is at the heart of the curriculum, e.g. competitions, trips to local libraries, visiting authors, reading assemblies, celebrating special reading events – online author events, library visits, World Book Day, Liverpool Children’s Festival of Reading, National Poetry Day, to name a few.
• Read With Me: Parents of children in Early Years are invited to attend Read With Me sessions every fortnight. The parents first observe reading strategies and early reading behaviours taught to their children by the staff. This then enables them to confidently engage in reading for pleasure with their child.
• Reading Environment: each classroom has its own book area with both fiction and non-fiction books. These are welcoming spaces where children visit, read, choose and talk about books. They appeal to both boys and girls and cater for all abilities. There are also books displayed within each class that are linked to curriculum topics taught, to encourage the children to read information and engage in subjects they are learning about.

Impact

The impact of these intent and implementation strategies is profound. Pupils leave school as confident, fluent readers who have a genuine love for books and reading. They are able to discuss and analyse texts critically, demonstrating a deep comprehension of what they read. This has a positive impact on their overall attainment and wellbeing, setting them up for success in secondary school and beyond.

We believe:

• Children’s discrete reading skills and comprehension enable them to become life-long, accomplished and keen readers.
• The culture of reading developed by our school extends into the home, so children read for pleasure through their own choice.
• School and class reading environments are welcoming spaces and appeal to children of all ages and abilities; and to both boys and girls.
• Exciting and engaging texts are read, shared and discussed with the children, so an appreciation of rich texts is established and a love of reading is developed.
• Reading is celebrated: children are engaged and enthused in reading books of a wide variety of genres.
• Great literature read opens the children up to ideas, experiences, places and times they might never otherwise experience in real life.