At Palfrey Infant School we believe that every child should have the right to a curriculum that champions excellence; supporting pupils in achieving to the very best of their abilities.
Intent
At Palfrey our children will be exposed to an extensive range of high quality age-related texts, fiction and non-fiction, both in well-stocked reading areas and Reading schemes that will encourage children to select books that are appropriate for their developmental needs and cover a range of interests. Children will read not just with fluency and understanding but with enjoyment and confidence. Reading skills enable children to comprehend and engage fully across the curriculum. We value reading as a key life skill and we are dedicated to enable our pupils to become life-long readers, an essential skill for participating fully as a member of society. Reading also enables pupils both to acquire knowledge and to build on what they already know.’ (DFE, 2014). We want pupils to develop a good knowledge of a range of authors, understand genres and their purpose and appreciate the world in which they live through the knowledge they gain from texts. Children’s reading attainment will be assessed to identify and close gaps quickly and effectively. The quality of texts and teacher modelling will support pupils in developing their language and vocabulary across the curriculum. Children are given the opportunities to take part in shared reading, group reading, 1:1 reading and independent reading.
Our Reading Curriculum is progressive in that it builds on the children’s prior knowledge of the assessment focuses. Using these, children’s reading skills will continue to be developed, consolidated and applied to a range of age appropriate texts.
Implementation
At Palfrey, decoding, blending and comprehension skills are taught in line with the reading practice guidance provided by our phonics scheme, RWI. We ensure children access decodable books. Through these schemes, children are provided with materials which are closely matched to their phonic knowledge.
There are five Reading lessons a week. There is a focus on improving children’s vocabulary by pulling apart the text and learning how to use any new vocabulary within their writing. Reading lessons target specific reading domains to help develop the children’s comprehension skills. Children complete independent comprehension activities throughout the week and also complete a further reading for pleasure activity linked to their own reading book. Reading lessons enable teachers to continue to stretch, challenge, support and guide the children at a more targeted level. Comprehension activities are created according to children’s needs.
Within Reading lessons and in 1:1 reading, struggling readers are identified and bespoke interventions are put in place. Those who are secure readers are given opportunities to demonstrate a greater depth of understanding through extended answers, targeted questioning requiring more reasoned answers and making greater links across and between texts.
Impact
Reading skills based sessions will be evident across the school with opportunities for reading domains to be explicitly taught and in depth discussions about the texts read held, including the use and definitions of new vocabulary in context. Children will have high quality discussions about the language used and a multitude of different domains being explored depending on the need of the children in each class.
When our children leave Palfrey, a good learner in Reading will...