Wakefield Snapethorpe Primary School

Our Reading Curriculum

Reading

Our intention at Snapethorpe Primary School is that all children leave our school being able to read confidently and fluently in order to access all areas of the curriculum, as reading is fundamental to many aspects of life. We aim for all children to leave our school with a love of reading for pleasure, as well as a deep understanding of reading for meaning. Children will be supported on this journey by building a strong reading foundation, using the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised programme, and by following a rigorous reading curriculum, where children will be taught vital reading skills. Through our reading curriculum, we will ensure that children move from learning to read to reading to learn, which is fundamental to becoming lifelong learners.

Phonics and Early Reading

At Snapethorpe Primary we follow Little Wandle Revised Letters and Sounds Synthetic Phonics Programme. We start teaching phonics in Nursery and follow the Little Wandle progression, which ensures children build on their growing knowledge of the alphabetic code, mastering phonics to read and spell as they move through school.

In nursery, we provide a balance of child-led and adult-led experiences for all children that meet the curriculum expectations for ‘Communication and language’ and ‘Literacy’. These include:

• sharing high-quality stories and poems
• learning a range of nursery rhymes and action rhymes
• activities that develop focused listening and attention, including oral blending
• attention to high-quality language.

We ensure Nursery children are well prepared to begin learning grapheme-phoneme correspondences (GPCs) and blending in Reception.

In Reception, Phonics is prioritised with daily phonics lessons. Following Little Wandle structure, any child struggling to keep up in the lesson is given daily catch up intervention. Children are taught to read over three sessions a week using books that match the phonetic level of the child. These books are taken home weekly so that children can continue their practise at home.

In Year 1, daily phonics practise continues as does reading lessons with decodable books three times a week. Regular assessment ensures gaps are identified early and children receive the support they need. By the time children reach the Phonics Screening Check in June, our children are confident in their phonetic knowledge.

In Year 2, for those who haven’t passed their phonics screening check, daily lessons continue with the Little Wandle Rapid Catch up groups. These groups continue for those who need continued support into Key Stage 2.

Guided Reading – Years 2-6

Daily guided reading sessions take place in Years 2 -6. Each week follows the same structure to allow for coverage of skills and consistency across school. Pupils study a wide, diverse range of fiction texts, poetry and non-fiction texts, which exposes them to a huge range of authors, genres and writing styles

The structure of the teaching sequence is shown below:

Progression in Reading Skills

Click here to see our Reading Progression across years 2-6.

1-1 Reading and Home Reading

At Snapethorpe, 1-1 reading takes place from Year 2 upwards as follows:

During these sessions, Pupils read books that correspond to the National Curriculum standards and adults support the development of their reading skills, noting down next steps to support their progression. Children are provided with a book banded book to take home as well as a library book for reading for pleasure.

How can I help my child at home?

To support your child in their development of reading, we recommend that you spend at least 10 minutes per day reading with your child. This can be a combination of you listening to them read their school book, them listening to you read a story book or even taking it in turns. The sharing of reading is a valuable experience for you and child as it gives you the opportunity to discuss new vocabulary as well as characters, themes and even facts that a range of books can offer.

Here are some other things you can try:

• Make books part of your family life - Always have books around that you and your children are ready to read whenever there is a chance.
• Join your local library - Get your child a library card!
• Match their interests - Help them find the right book - it doesn't matter if it's fiction, poetry, comic books or non-fiction.
• All reading is good - Don't discount non-fiction, comics, graphic novels, magazines and leaflets. Reading is still reading!
• Get comfortable! - Snuggle up somewhere warm and cosy with your child, either in bed, on a beanbag or on the sofa.
• Ask questions - To keep them interested in the story, ask your child questions as you read such as, "What do you think will happen next?" or "Where did we get to last night? Can you remember what has happened already? How do you think the story will end?"
• Read whenever you get the chance - Bring along a book or magazine for any time your child has to wait, such as at a doctor's surgery.
• Read again and again - Encourage your child to re-read favourite books and poems. Re-reading helps to build up fluency and confidence.
• Bedtime stories - Regularly read with your child or children at bedtime. It's a great way to end the day and to spend valuable time with your child.
• Rhyme and repetition - Books are great for encouraging your child and children to join in and remember the words.
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Reading for pleasure

We believe it is important for every child to read and for every child to be read to. Children have access to high quality and diverse texts to use when they read for pleasure. Class texts are chosen from our Reading Spine and are read daily during our timetabled ‘Class Novel’ session. During this time, fluency is modelled to pupils, discussions around the books takes place and children are given the opportunity to discuss books they have read and any recommendations they have.

Reading Ambassadors 

Reading Ambassadors will be working towards promoting reading and reading for enjoyment across the school. They participate in a weekly book club, where they share their own book recommendations, read and discuss traditional and new texts, and research a variety of authors. This allows pupils to gain a wider knowledge around literature, which they can then share with their classes.

Our Library

The school library is a wonderful resource to help children with their learning. Classes have an allocated time each week, which gives pupils the opportunity to come and explore the books we have to offer. Each child can borrow a book from our library to take back to their classroom to read for pleasure. We have a wide range of non-fiction books to link with class topics and fiction books to suit every type of reader. Having close links with the Schools Library Service, provides us with a wide range of books that are changed and updated regularly. This service also allows classrooms to loan books to suit the needs of their children, whether that be a particular topic they are studying or to cater for children's specific interests.