Purpose of study

English has a pre-eminent place in education and in society. A high-quality education in English will teach pupils to speak and write fluently so that they can communicate their ideas and emotions to others, and through their reading and listening, others can communicate with them. Through reading in particular, pupils have a chance to develop culturally, emotionally, intellectually, socially and spiritually. Literature, especially, plays a key role in such development. Reading also enables pupils both to acquire knowledge and to build on what they already know. All the skills of language are essential to participating fully as a member of society; pupils who do not learn to speak, read and write fluently and confidently are effectively disenfranchised.

Reading Intent - What Do We Aspire for Our Children?

At St Anne’s Primary School, the teaching of the reading curriculum has been carefully considered to enable our pupils to become fluent, confident and accurate readers. At St Anne’s, we follow the phonics Read, Write, Inc. programme in EYFS and KS1 until the children have the skills and fluency to access age-appropriate texts. Using a Progressive Skills Document where objectives for each year group are progressively mapped out, our teaching ensures our pupils are given the acquired skills and knowledge to further their education journey into KS3 and life beyond the classroom. The Reading Progressive Skills document is fully compliant with the 2020 Statutory Guidance.

Reading is taught on a daily basis and supported through home reading. In daily reading sessions, children are taught different skills with an aim to develop a child who reads fluently, with understanding and for enjoyment.

Key Concepts

These are explored through different texts and text types appropriate to the age and ability of the child.

Word Reading: Children are taught to apply their developing phonic knowledge to read fluently and accurately.

Comprehension: Children are taught the skills to understand and question the texts which they are reading.

Disciplinary Knowledge        Within guided reading sessions, children are taught a range of skills in order for them to understand texts.

Develop positive attitudes to reading                       Children are enthusiastic, independent readers by the time they leave primary school.    

Skills and Strategies to read for understanding      Children expect texts to make sense to them and when they do not, they take steps to sort out 

                                                                                      the difficulties.

Understand the vocabulary used in texts                Children are exposed to increasingly adventurous vocabulary in order to widen their knowledge

                                                                                     and understanding.

Express, record and present their understanding   Children recognise that the articulation of ideas about texts is an essential part of being a 

                                                                                      reader.

Understand the whole text                                         Children recognise and compare  main ideas and themes in a wide range of books.

Retrieve Information from texts                                 Children noticing and understanding what is actually stated in a text.

Inferential understanding                                           Children are active readers, engaged in the search for meaning within a text.

Reading to find out                                                      Children read non-fiction for both pleasure and for research purposes.

In Reading, by the end of EYFS children will:

Demonstrate understanding of what has been read to them by retelling stories and narratives using their own words and recently introduced vocabulary. They will anticipate – where appropriate – key events in stories and will use and understand recently introduced vocabulary during discussions about stories, non-fiction, rhymes and poems and during role-play. Children will say a sound for each letter in the alphabet and will know at least 10 digraphs. They will read words consistent with their phonic knowledge by sound-blending. Children will read aloud simple sentences and books that are also consistent with their phonic knowledge, including some common exception words.

By the end of Key Stage 1 children will:

Be able to read accurately and with increased fluency. Children will read without overt sounding and blending and will read most common exception words. Children will be able to answer questions and be able summarise events from a text. Children will also make some inferences based on what is said and done.

By the end of Key Stage 2 children will:

Be able to read age-appropriate texts with confidence and fluency. They will draw inferences about characters’ feelings, thoughts and motives. They will be able to make plausible predictions and summaries. Children will be able to comment upon a writer’s choice of language and explain the effect of vocabulary on the reader. They will make reasoned justifications for their views using the text to support their opinions.

Any child working below their age-related expectation, will receive  tailored intervention. This will support all children to build the skills and knowledge needed to bridge the gap between themselves and their peers enabling them to reach their full potential.

Characteristics of a Reader

Simple view of reading:

• Excellent phonic knowledge and skills.
• Fluency and accuracy in reading across a wide range of contexts throughout the curriculum.
• Knowledge of an extensive and rich vocabulary.
• An excellent comprehension of texts.
• The motivation to read for both study and for pleasure.
• Extensive knowledge through having read a rich and varied range of texts.

Implementation - How We Will Deliver Our Curriculum

At St Anne's Catholic Primary School, our reading curriculum is carefully designed to offer children a rich variety of texts primarily to engage and inspire and also, crucially, through the careful selection of texts linked to topics and concepts, to develop schemas and thus support memory and recall.

At St Anne’s  early reading and phonics are taught using the Read Write Inc synthetic programme which begins in nursery with an introduction to the pictures and mnemonics linked to the sounds for the individual letters in the English alphabet. Daily lessons begin immediately for Reception children and continue through KS1 with an increasing focus on embedding phonetic knowledge into spelling automaticity. Phonic awareness helps the development of reading by segmenting and blending sounds and the children will be heard reading regularly, both individually, in groups and as a class. In line with recommendations from the 2022 OFSTED English review document, lessons are designed to rapidly develop children's fluency in reading, through a secure grasp of phonetical knowledge and quantative decoding. Children are given timely intervention as soon as they require additional instruction to secure taught phonics.

Our class reading sessions cover a wide variety of fiction, non-fiction and poetry texts and help to advance the children’s comprehension skills. All lessons begin with fluency practice to support children's comprehension as they meet increasingly challenging texts across the curriculum.

Impact - How Do We Know Our English Curriculum is Effective?

A wide range of strategies are used to measure the impact of our reading curriculum. The impact of learning is measured through daily formative and regular summative assessment. Early readers are assessed using RWI assessment resources. Children's progress against National Curriculum expectations are made using the reading progression criteria. Standardisation of teacher assessments is supported by reading moderation exercises, using year group KPIs as a framework for evidence.
Children who are not achieving in line with expectations are given intervention sessions to match the identified aspect of difficulty, to facilitate continued progress with their learning. At the end of each term, all children are formally assessed using a standardised test. These tests are used to carry out question level analysis to enable teachers to plan effective lessons and to break down barriers to learning.

Our subject leaders will also monitor the effectiveness of the reading curriculum through collating additional data relating to fluency, word-reading accuracy and comprehension. The granular analysis of this data ensures that any child falling behind is quickly identified and supported. 

The effectiveness of our reading curriculum is also monitored through pupil and parental voice throughout the course of the year.