Reading

Intent

The intent of the English curriculum is the content we want our pupils to learn and the sequence in which they will encounter it. We continually develop the English curriculum to ensure it is coherent and progressive, engaging and relevant. This curriculum aims to develop pupils’ spoken language, reading, writing and vocabulary as integral aspects of the teaching of every subject. It is widely recognised that: ‘Fluency in the English language is an essential foundation for success in all subjects’. Consequently, our English curriculum aims to inspire and engage our children. Our Phonics and English leaders frequently give feedback to all staff members, governors, parents and carers on the progress of the English action plan.

Implementation

The implementation of the English curriculum is essentially how the curriculum intent is taught to children. At Leasowe Primary, both the governors and the senior leadership team question and discuss the development of the English Curriculum with the English and Phonics leaders to ensure that pupils are taught through an accurate, effective and consistent approach. Both the Phonics and English leaders ensure that all teaching staff have the necessary training, resources and time to provide the planned curriculum. Additionally, teachers accurately demonstrate how to utilise the knowledge and skills taught in English through other areas of the curriculum.

National requirements are mapped out using progressive assessment systems. Teachers follow the programmes we have in place, completing both formative and summative assessments for their pupils accordingly. 

School staff ensure that the full content of the English curriculum is accessible for all learners including those with disabilities or special educational needs.

The English curriculum is planned thoroughly, starting with the children's current knowledge and skills, so that real progress can be made and measured. Throughout the year numerous visits, visitors and experiences are planned to enrich learning.

Children’s prior knowledge is assessed on entry to the school and learning planned accordingly. Throughout each Little Wandle, Read to Write, Steps to Read, Spelling Shed and Grammar Ninja unit, children demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of the work covered. To make learning semantic, key skills and concepts are consistently revisited in all programmes used.

Impact

We firmly believe that the impact of learning occurs when knowledge can be retrieved from the long term memory and skills have been mastered. The impact of our English curriculum can be clearly seen by looking at children’s Phonics and English books, classroom displays, talking to our pupils, parents and carers, viewing our results of statutory assessments and intervention progress.

What Reading looks like at LPS

Reading

At LPS we work really hard to ensure reading is at the forefront of our curriculum. We understand that it is the backbone to everything that we do here and how important it is for our children to grow up with not only the ability to read but also the desire to want to read. We encourage reading at every opportunity, whether that be in our reading club at lunchtime, our local library visits, our reading for pleasure time or simply our staff sharing their own enthusiasm for reading with the children. We have regular book themed activities around the school and these have previously included: Readathons, Book fairs, World Book Day’s, Book Swaps - anything we can do to encourage the children to choose to read we will strive to do.

In every classroom we have a ‘Reading for Pleasure’ area that all our children have independent access to and are encouraged to use. We have also allotted a slot into our timetables to allow the children to have weekly ‘Reading for Pleasure’ time. 

This year we have implemented a new reading curriculum in KS2. After much deliberation we have decided to use the Steps to Read planning tool as we feel it sits perfectly with our Read to Write programme. It has very high expectations which encourages our children to work hard. but also includes a brilliant range of non-fiction and poetry books which we believe will help to encourage our reluctant readers to engage in the lessons and feel more willing to participate. There are three weekly reading sessions within our timetables and during these sessions the children are taught the necessary reading skills set out in the National Curriculum.

Once our children have achieved the expected level in phonics, they are moved on to the Accelerated Reader programme. The children will complete termly Star Reader tests which will give us a ZPD for each child which we then use to guide them on what book level to choose next. They will then read these books during allocated class reading time and they are able to take these books home to continue their reading at home. Once they have completed the books the child will take an online quiz based upon the book and this then allows the teacher to track their progress and better understand their comprehension skills.

Storytime

All of our children end every school day with storytime. The class teacher will read their children a book chosen from our carefully selected LPS Reading Spine which challenges their comprehension reading level. Practitioners read, lead discussions and model how to engage as a reader. The English Lead monitors which texts are being read in school to ensure the children are always exposed to high quality literature and regularly observes story time across the school to guarantee new vocabulary is being highlighted, questioning is purposeful and children are fully engaged.

Our LPS Reading Spine is constantly evolving as new books are published and we listen to our pupils responses from previous books read. The English leader ensures that the books chosen include; diverse characters, topics that children can relate to, different cultures and protected characteristics. The English leader encourages all members of staff to read these books to gain a good understanding of how the reading material we have can support, challenge and engage our children. Staff are informed of new books added and know where to locate these books in our reading spine library.