Reading
English is an integral part of education and daily life. The stimulating English curriculum that we provide at our school teaches children to speak, read and write fluently, enabling them to articulate their own ideas, opinions and emotions whilst developing the ability to communicate through listening, speaking, reading and writing.
Our reading curriculum incorporates the National Curriculum statutory requirements for Reading. The Reading Framework explains that by ensuring children become fluent and engaged readers, the circle of reading difficulty and demotivation will be avoided. It also states that fluent reading is key to unlocking the wider curriculum for children. This underpins our ethos for reading. Additionally, the framework explains that the ability to read increases life chances and opportunities for children from disadvantaged backgrounds. For this reason, supporting our disadvantaged pupils to read is of paramount importance to us.
Author of the Month
Intention
Reading is at the heart of the curriculum, and it is an integral part of every subject. At Hammond, we aim to ensure that all pupils develop into fully independent, proficient, reflective readers who love reading. It is our intention to equip our pupils with essential reading skills and a positive, enthusiastic attitude towards reading that will prepare them for the next stage of their education and life beyond school. Each day begins with a whole class reading lesson and ends with class teachers reading a class novel to the pupils.
A reading culture is established in our school with a vibrant, active library at its centre, housing a range of non-fiction and fiction texts, our featured MarvellousReads titles and the school’s reading scheme. Pupils visit the library regularly to enjoy, discuss and borrow books and participate in reading for pleasure activities, such as read-alouds.
Comprehension- We value reading as a crucial life skill. By the time children leave us, they read confidently for meaning and regularly enjoy reading for pleasure. Our readers are equipped with the tools to tackle unfamiliar vocabulary. We encourage our children to see themselves as readers for both pleasure and purpose.
Phonics - Pupils who require additional support to consolidate their phonics understanding, receive a daily phonics intervention, Little Wandle’s Rapid Catch-up, which is part of Little Wandle’s systematic and synthetic phonics programme. Pupils are given a phonics assessment on arrival at Hammond and, when necessary, an intervention program is rapidly established to enable them to catch-up.
Curriculum Implementation
For more detailed information on how our reading curriculums is delivered across the school please see our Reading Progress Document.
CUSP Progression in key reading skills
Teaching Reading
Reading is taught throughout the school through the CUSP curriculum: a curriculum underpinned by evidence, research and cognitive science. The curriculum’s learning sequences are deliberately planned for robust progression. Specific reading skills and fluency are taught in discrete sessions and there is an emphasis on oracy and vocabulary acquisition and retention through direct instruction. The importance of prosody is emphasised in all lessons.
Pupils study whole novels, extracts, non-fiction pieces and poetry. The texts in the curriculum’s literacy spine have been mapped carefully to ensure a breadth of experiences, authors and themes. The texts also facilitate important discussions linked to the thought-provoking and diverse range of subjects studied in our school’s curriculum.
Pupils enjoyed an owl visit and talk to support their reading of Skellig.
Independent reading
Pupils are assessed regularly to ensure they are reading texts that they can read fluently and therefore comprehend. Pupils begin their independent reading journey by reading books from the school’s Oxford Level banded reading scheme. Pupils read regularly in school and progress through the reading scheme, developing their fluency and critical reading skills, until they are deemed “free readers”, at which stage they can choose any texts from our school library.
Teaching phonics
Pupils who need to consolidate their phonics understanding receive rapid catch-up support daily, delivered by a fully trained practitioner. Keep-up lessons match the structure of class teaching at the infant schools, and use the same procedures, resources and mantras, but in smaller steps with more repetition, so that every child secures their learning. The Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised assessments are used to identify the gaps in pupils’ phonic knowledge and the keep-up resources are utilised to eliminate these gaps at pace.
Literacy for All intervention
Pupils who require additional support to improve their reading fluency, receive daily one to one Literacy for All interventions. This research-informed intervention, delivered by a trained literacy assistant, develops pupils’ phonic knowledge and blending ability, high frequency word recognition and speed of recall and reading fluency. It also aims to develop in pupils a more positive attitude towards reading and a more positive perception of themselves as readers.
Home reading and home reading communication
Pupils are provided with a reading scheme or “free-reader” fiction book, a non-fiction library book and a reading for pleasure MarvellousReads book to take home and share with an adult at home. Home reading is recorded in a reading record and this is monitored weekly by class teachers. Pupils are encouraged to read each day with an adult at home and record this in their reading records; regular reading is rewarded through certificates.
Each half term, parents/carers receive a Reading Roundup newsletter, written by the English subject leads, which highlights reading activities at the school and contains information about current reading events and reading for pleasure activities in education and beyond.
Parents/carers regularly receive a short list of oracy questions related to their child’s current learning and which include key vocabulary and ideas linked to the curriculum. Parents/carers are encouraged to discuss the questions with their children to develop oral communication skills.
Reading for Pleasure
“Reading for pleasure is the single most important indicator of a child’s success.” OECD 2002
“The will influences the skill and vice versa.” OECD 2010
At Hammond, we believe that reading for pleasure is crucial and therefore we have various systems and strategies in place to support this important aspect of children’s reading.
Every day, classes engage in OTTER (Own Time To Enjoy Reading) sessions which include independent, paired or group reading and important accompanying book talk sessions. Each classroom has a working reading display, which features current book recommendations from the pupils that have been discussed during OTTER time.
The school has a MarvellousReads program which aims to broaden pupils’ reading repertoires whilst encouraging a love of reading. The MarvellousReads program stocks a range of recommended reads in the library for pupils to borrow and enjoy. The texts have been carefully chosen to include a range of fiction, non-fiction, picture, classic, new and diverse titles. Pupils receive a MarvellousReads loyalty card and are rewarded for this additional reading.
Hammond encourages pupils’ awareness and knowledge of different authors and each month the school has a featured author. Library displays and assemblies explore the author’s life and works, and corresponding texts are provided for the pupils to read and discuss in class. The school also arranges author school visits and various online events throughout the year.
All classes have access to the library at least once a fortnight and are encouraged to borrow a non-fiction book. The library is used to encourage children to develop a love of reading and read for pleasure. It can also be used for small group work and interventions.
Pupils enjoy OTTER (Own Time To Enjoy Reading)
Ensuring consistency and pace of progress
Every teacher in our school has been trained to teach the CUSP Reading curriculum, so we have the same expectations of progress. We all use the same language, routines and resources to teach children to read so that we lower children’s cognitive load.
The CUSP curriculum provides content grids which map each element of new learning to each day, week and term.
Ongoing training and CUSP CPD videos ensure teachers have a consistent approach to each lesson, and that each lesson follows the same structure.
The English leads and SLT regularly monitor and observe teaching; they use summative data to identify gaps in learning and identify children who need additional support.
Curriculum Impact
Assessment
Assessment is used to monitor progress and to identify any child needing additional support as soon as they need it. Assessment for learning is used daily within class to identify children needing keep-up support. Summative assessment is used termly to assess progress, to identify gaps in learning that need to be addressed, and identify any children needing additional support
Statutory assessment
Children in Year 6 sit KS2 SATs tests.
Our pupils leave the school having read a wide range of high-quality texts across different genres. Our pupils can talk passionately about their favourite books and recommend books to others. Most importantly, all our children leave the school with a love of reading and that will enable them to access the curriculum and everything the literary world has to offer as they move through life.
Supporting your child with reading
Although your child will be taught to read at school, you can have a huge impact on their reading journey by continuing their practice at home.
There are three types of reading book that your child may bring home.
A banded or “free reader” reading book is brought home daily and the pupil should read this to a parent/carer and discuss the content. These books are carefully matched to the pupil’s current reading level and the pupil should be reading the book fluently, independently.
A MarvellousReads book can be brought home and either read by the child or read through shared reading with a parent/carer. The pupil may need support reading some of the words and a discussion about the book is encouraged.
A non-fiction library book can be brought home and either read by the child or read through shared reading with a parent/carer. Once again, the pupil may need support reading some of the words and a discussion about the book is encouraged.
Marvellous Reads
Our pupils talk informatively about reading and their love of the subject:
“I like reading lessons because they are fun and exciting.” Year 3 pupil
“I enjoy learning new words in the vocabulary section at the start of the lesson.” Year 4 pupil
“I enjoy reading lessons. Sometimes we read books that I don’t think I will like but then I end up enjoying them and wanting to know what happens next." Year 5 pupil
“In reading lessons, we read and learn about amazing books and now that we are shown how to approach questions as a whole class, it has made reading a lot easier. The MarvellousReads books encourage me to read and finish more books.” Year 6 pupil
“Reading lessons are interesting and I learn at least one new word every lesson. The library has books on lots of themes and is a calm place to visit.” Year 6 pupil
Lead: Mrs Beth Redick
