BrackenburyEnglish - Reading & Phonics
Reading Intent
At Brackenbury, we celebrate reading across all years and see it as one of the central foundations in a child’s learning. We believe that reading helps children to understand the ever-changing world around them, as well as develop their social and emotional skills both at home and at school. We see that both fluency and enjoyment in reading are an integral part of a child’s academic progress. We teach daily phonics in EYFS and Year 1 using ELS (Essential Letters and Sounds), and in KS1 and KS2 we teach word reading and comprehension skills through daily reading lessons. We put a high level of thought into the range of texts our children read, both within reading lessons and as independent readers, as our school encourages the use of a wide range of exciting and interesting vocabulary to develop our children’s understanding and communication skills.
Reading Implementation and Impact
At Brackenbury, we teach reading lessons that focus on the key areas of word reading and comprehension; retrieval and sequencing, inference, prediction, summarising, vocabulary, comparison and author voice. In KS1 and KS2, children are taught through a reading cycle consisting of pre-reading, guided-reading and post reading sessions, as well as sessions dedicated to developing independent reading stamina and applying their knowledge through comprehension quizzes. In their pre-reading session, children are introduced to a section of text they will be using that week to develop their word reading and comprehension skills. The following session will be guided by the teacher, where children learn a comprehension skill and delve further into the text. In the post-reading session, children apply their learning from the week.
In EYFS and Year 1, phonics is taught daily using the Essential Letters and Sounds scheme which is written to be in line with the government’s ‘Letters and Sounds’ guidance to provide high quality teaching of these skills. Please see ‘Early Reading’ and ‘Phonics’ information below for further details.
Our well-stocked library is a place where all classes visit once a week, to share the books they have read with the rest of the class, hear stories read aloud to them and choose new books to take home and enjoy. Children who are not yet ‘free readers’, will work through our school-reading scheme – these are banded and levelled books, which match the children’s current attainment. For early reading, pupils use decodable books, which complement the school’s phonics chosen phonics provision, ELS (Essential Letters and Sounds). We expect families at home to read these books with their child each evening and make comments in their child’s reading record for children in Reception, Year 1, Year 2, Year 3 and Year 4. In Years 5 and 6 we celebrate our reading in a different way, by recommending the books we read on a class reading tree. This is a daily routine that encourages children to evaluate the books they read, and read a wider range of texts recommended by their peers.
Every day, classes read their class novel so that every child within a class feels part of a community of reading. Please see information below on the class novels read within each year group from Year 2 to Year 6.
Impact
By the time children leave Brackenbury they are avid readers, who are motivated to read, can recommend books to their peers, participate in interesting discussions about books and have developed a life-long love of reading. All children at Brackenbury will have read a range of texts, genres and literature. They will have fostered a love of reading and be prepared for their secondary school education.
Early Reading
Our Early Reading at Brackenbury document reviews the points raised in the Ofsted framework and provides parents and inspectors further detail about the teaching of early reading at Brackenbury.
Progression of skills and knowledge
Our ‘Reading subject progression of skills and knowledge' document gives further information about what the children are taught in this subject by year group
Reading progression of skills and knowledge
Phonics Scheme
Phonics is taught daily throughout Reception and Key Stage 1 to develop phonological awareness, early reading and speaking and listening skills. We use the Essential Letters and Sounds scheme which is written to be in line with the government’s ‘Letters and Sounds’ guidance to provide high quality teaching of these skills. A wide range of materials are used throughout the school to develop a love of reading and children are encouraged to read a range of genres. We have developed an information document for Parents on Phonics at Brackenbury a guide for parents which can be downloaded below.
Phonics at Brackenbury a guide for parents
Long term Phonics Plan
Our Long Term Phonics Plan details the learning journey that all children will undertake when they are learning to read. This gives week by week details for Nursery to Year 2 can be viewed below
Long Term Phonics Plan Nursery to Y2
Phonics Parent Presentation
Parent Presentation – we have share a phonics parent workshop annually for parents and the presentation slides can be viewed here
ELS Parent Presentation
Reading Long Term Overview
Reading Long Term overviews– Each year group have various class novels that are shared over the year. These can be viewed below
We also have longer term reading planning organised by year group that can be viewed on the Year group planning page.Supporting Reading at home
Please find some useful documents for you to use in order to deepen your child’s understanding of the texts they read, and develop their reading further.Suggested Book Lists for each Year group
English National Curriculum
If you would like to know more, please visit National Curriculum for English.
