Reading 

Our approach to the teaching of Reading.

At Lynsted and Norton School, our aim is to foster a love of reading that carries on into adulthood. Reading is given high profile within the school on a daily basis. We have children reading to themselves, individually to an adult, whole class and in small groups. All classes have a class book, so they can see adults modelling reading and expression. We want our children to become fluent and confident readers. The children also have access to our well stocked school library, meaning they can choose books that appeal to them. 

We start at the very beginning of learning to read, by using Little Wandle Letters and Sounds phonics in Reception. Children will continue having daily phonics lessons until they have mastered phase 5 sounds. Reading Practice sessions are also part of Little Wandle Letters and Sounds. These are taught every day and allow the children to embed their phonics knowledge in decodable reading books.  

The  Accelerated Reader program is also used when they are ready to progress from phonics.

The AR program enables the children to choose a book of their choice from a range of suitable texts that are accessible but still extending their reading skills. After each book, a short quiz assesses their comprehension and grasp of vocabulary. The AR program gives both the children and teachers valuable information about reading progress as well as helping to identify any areas of development for the child.  Parents and Carers can also be informed of their child’s success in the quizzes by signing up to the Home Connect facility on the AR program. For more information about AR, click here.

What does Reading look like in class?

For the teaching of reading, we use agreed systems.  In EYFS, they follow the traditional small group guided reading and a carousal of activities.  In Year 1, Little Wandle Letter and Sounds is the initial teaching of reading and reading practise. The classes transition into guided reading from years 1/2 upwards.

For all other year groups, we teach whole class reading based on a single text.  Each week follows the same structure of a day for each of the following:

• Day 1. Read the text as a class and examine unknown vocabulary and predictions
• Day 2. Modelling of I wonder questions and children exploring these. Change predicts if needed
• Day 3. Inference and use of Higher order questions (verbally)
• Day 4. Inference and use of Higher order questions (written)
• Day 5. Summarising the text

Reading for pleasure

As a school, we value the importance of reading for pleasure. At the end of everyday every class has a 15 minute slot dedicated to reading for pleasure. Each class will select their book in a different way. 

This term, Year 5/6 chose their text based on one of our school values - independence, ambition and enquiry. 

Here are the books each class will be enjoying this term:

Foxes Class:

Hedgehog Class:

Butterflies Class:

Ducklings: