Appendix A – for Heathside Literacy Policy
Heathside Reading Policy 2014-2015
“So please, oh PLEASE, we beg, we pray,
Go throw your TV set away,
And in its place you can install,
A lovely bookshelf on the wall."
Roald Dahl, ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’
Aims
To develop interested, self-motivated and inquiring learners who read confidently and
independently.
To begin to develop lifelong enjoyment and pleasure in reading.
To enable children to access all areas of the curriculum.
To enable children to access, understand and begin to manage information in a variety of
forms including electronic media.
To begin to understand the underlying meaning of what is read to them and what they
read.
To begin to respond to what they read; to say whether they like or don’t like it and why.
To begin to understand and respond to the feelings that words can arouse in us like
happiness, sadness, anger and how writing can have the intention of creating an emotional
response.
To walk through doors to the past, to the future, and to other worlds both real and
imagined.
In Heathside we expect all adults to model and communicate their love of reading. These
are just some of the ways we can share this:
Story-time
Shared reading
Guided reading
Reading Buddies
Reading corners
Library time
Teacher Reading with individual children
Reading time as a reward
A fair chance for all children to read to the class within their levels of comfort
In the Foundation Stage the teaching of reading is based on Communication, Language and
Literacy in The Early Years and Foundation Stage (EYFS).
In Key Stage 1 (year 1 and 2) the teaching of reading is based on the National Curriculum
for English and the Framework for teaching literacy and what we know and believe is
successful about teaching children to read. The Rose Report has had a significant impact on
how we view children as learners.
In line with guidance from the framework for literacy our teaching objectives cover three key
strands:
1.
Word reading skills & strategies - decoding
2.
3.
Understanding and interpreting texts - comprehension
Engaging with and responding to texts – independent thinking
These strands reflect the new conceptual framework for reading described in the Rose
Report.
Word reading skills and strategies
Every day each child will be engaged in
Speaking, listening, reading and writing activities which allow them to explore and practice
their phonic knowledge, blending and segmenting skills independently
An interactive multisensory phonics session
Shared reading and/or writing led by the teacher to demonstrate reading and writing
strategies (including phonics) in a meaningful way
A rich and regular ‘Read aloud’ programme (story time)
One-to-one Reading
In Key Stage 1 the aim is to read with every child every day and monitor progress in the
home-school reading record.
Shared reading
Every Day
The teacher models the reading process and the children are actively involved; listening to
the text being read aloud, joining in and following the reading, and contributing to discussion
and response.
Children learn how to apply the knowledge and skills they are acquiring in daily word level
work.
The teacher leads discussion about the text to help children develop their understanding.
Children learn how to interpret and make sense of what they read.
Guided or group reading
Twice a week
A skilled adult works with small groups of children who are able to read at a similar level.
The adult scaffolds the learning by guiding children through the text and prompting them to
apply what they’ve learnt in shared reading and other literacy activities.
Range
Pupils should be taught the knowledge, skills and understanding through the following
ranges
Literature:
Stories & poems with familiar settings and those based on imaginary or fantasy worlds
Stories, plays & poems by significant children’s authors
Retellings of traditional folk & fairy stories
Stories & poems from a range of cultures
Stories, plays & poems with patterned & predictable language
Stories & poems which are challenging, in terms of length and vocabulary
Texts where the use of language benefits from being read aloud and reread
Non-fiction and non-literary texts:
Print & ICT-based information texts
Dictionaries, encyclopaedias & other reference materials
Texts
Interactive white board resources; software and websites
Big books
Reading books grouped into ‘book bands’; core scheme Alphablocks, Oxford Reading
Tree, Collins
Guided readers held within each Year level.
Library books organised into fiction and non-fiction
Class library books
Summative Records of Reading will be recorded in:
Individual pupil reading records, decoding and comprehension assessments and School
tracking.
Reading records (whenever children change books)
Guided reading record sheets
Tracking for phonic skills and through book bands
PIRA reading age tests run each term.
APPs, Comprehension and Decoding Assessments can be found on the ICT network.
Children with SEN referral will work towards the same objectives with support. Those
working well below the level of their peers will be working on a related objective from an
earlier year group.
Children who are gifted and talented will be working to deepen or broaden their
understanding of the objective which may sometimes be from a later year with an appropriate
level of text content for their age.
Children learning English as an additional language (EAL) will receive appropriate support to
enable them to access the objective.
Intervention
When a child has not achieved the Early Learning Goal’s for reading at end of the
Foundation Stage they receive a suitable program to meet their needs, such as:
Early Literacy Support, Letters and Sounds
When children are not reaching the expected rate of progress with phonic and reading skills
within KS1 they receive ‘Catch up’ reading sessions through guided reading groups and oneto-one reading as well as other interventions set by the SEN Coordinator.
When children aren’t meeting reading needs in KS2, they have a number of booster options
available including Guided Reading, one-to-one intervention and other specialist schemes
designated by the SEN Coordinator.
Reading at home
Each child takes at least one book home a day from the book-banded reading scheme.
It is up to individual Teachers to decide whether a child is classified as a ‘free-reader’
however the book-band system levels books all the way into Secondary School suggesting
that it is more beneficial to follow the bands throughout Primary school. Age-appropriate
content must be seriously considered when allowing children to access books from school
‘freely’. (See Book Bands Below)
We recognise that children make better progress when they are supported at home and
when there is good communication between child-school-home. We also provide for reading
at school for any individual not receiving the appropriate level of reading input at home.
We communicate reading objectives with parents via:
Transition and New Class Meetings
Subject Area Meetings as required
Reading Meetings
Reading Records
IEP and SEN Meetings
Open Afternoons
Parent Evenings
Book Bands – NC Reading Levels
Guide to
NC level
Book BAND/
Collins Big Cat
0 Lilac
Individualised Cliff
Reading
Moon
NCLL STAGE level
0 Red
Reading
Recovery
level
Guide to
Average
Age
0-6
Guide to
Average
Year group
FS
Red
1-2 FS
0-6
Black
3 – 5 FS
0-6
Yellow
6 – 8 L1
6-7
FS/Y1
FS/Y1
Stepping
Stones
1 Pink
Stepping
Stones
2 Red
1c ELG
3 Yellow
1 Yellow
2 White
3 Dark blue
4 Pink
5 Brown
1c
4 Blue
6 Green
9 – 11 L1
7-8
Y1
1b
5 Green
7 Grey
7-8
Y1
1a
6 Orange
7 Grey
12 – 14
L1
15/16 L1
7-8
Y1/Y2
2c
7 Turquoise
8 Orange
17/18 L2
7-9
Y2
FS
End of Term
1
2b
8 Purple
8 Orange
19/20 L2
7-9
Y2
2b
9 Gold
9 Black
21/22 L2
7-9
Y2
End of Term 3
2a
10 White
9 Black
3c
11 Lime
3b
8-9
Y2/Y3
10 Beige
9-10
Y3
12 Copper
10 Beige
11-12
Y3
3b
13 Topaz
10 Beige
Y4
3a
14 Ruby
11 Dark Pink
Y4/Y5
3a
15 Emerald
11 Dark Pink
Y5
4c
16 Sapphire
12 Pale Blue
Y6
4b-5
17 Diamond
Beyond 12
Up to Band 6 = Working within Level 1
23/24 L2
Up to Band 10 = Working within Level 2
Up to Band 15 = Working within Level 3
Beyond 16
= Working at level 4+
Further Guidelines for EYFS and KS1 Readers
By the end of the Foundation Stage most children:
Explore and experiment with sounds, words and text.
Link sounds to letters, naming and sounding the letters of the alphabet.
Use a pencil and hold it effectively to form recognisable letters, most of which are
formed correctly.
Hear and say sounds in words in the order in which they occur.
[The wording of this objective may change depending upon the outcomes of the consultation
on changes to the Early Learning Goals pending parliamentary approval].
Read simple words by sounding out and blending the phonemes all through the word from
left to right.
Children move from reading simple consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) words such as 'cat'
and bus to longer CCVC words such as 'clap' and 'stop', and CVCC words as 'fast' and 'milk'.
Recognise common digraphs.
Read some high frequency words.
Use phonic knowledge to write simple regular words and make phonetically plausible
attempts at more complex words.
Read a range of familiar and common words and simple sentences independently.
Read texts compatible with their phonic knowledge and skills.
Read and write one grapheme for each of the 44 phonemes.
By the end of year 1 most children:
Apply reading skills to familiar and new texts.
Are beginning to self-correct.
Check that what they read makes sense.
Are beginning to notice basic punctuation and read more fluently.
Express opinions about what they like and dislike and compare their opinions to those of
others.
Identify basic story structures.
Make predictions about events and outcomes.
Compare different aspects of stories e.g. characters, settings, themes and find evidence in
the text.
Have begun to develop an awareness of character and dialogue through role-playing and
re-enacting stories.
Have experienced a wide-range of poems, rhymes, action verses and chants.
Recognise and join in with patterned and predictable refrains e.g. “Grandma what big eyes
you have!”
Play with language to make up new lines and poems following the same pattern.
Read an use information around them such as signs, labels, captions, lists and
instructions.
Confidently identify the differences between story and information books.
Can ask questions before reading with some support.
Use the contents and the index to help locate the information.
Apply their reading skills and read independently.
By the end of year 2 most children:
Have internalised the essential tunes and rhythms and structures of language and have an
ever-increasing store of vocabulary which they can draw on in speech and writing.
Have listened to short stories, serialised longer stories and non-fiction texts read aloud.
Identify main events and characters in stories.
Find information in simple texts.
Select books for their personal reading and give reasons for their choice.
Read most of the 150 high frequency words.
Use phonic knowledge and blending skills to decode words independently and quickly.
Read independently including longer and less familiar texts.
Routinely apply phonic knowledge to read unfamiliar and more complex words.
Keep track of meaning in texts with longer sentence structures and paragraphs.
Read silently or quietly at a faster pace.
Have a developing awareness of authors and begin to recognise common settings,
characters and themes in an authors work.
Begin to suggest reasons for particular events or individual character’s actions.