Reading is an essential, life-long skill which we, at Woodnewton, strongly believe every pupil must develop so that they leave the school as fluent and confident readers who comprehend and discuss a wide range of texts articulately and comprehensively. Encompassing this is for all our pupils to have a love of reading a wide range and variety of books and texts. Reading is a basic right for all children within our school.
Ensuring a strong grasp of Phonics is a pre-requisite to Reading. As a school, we follow the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised, which is a systematic and synthetic Phonics programme accredited by the DfE. We have absolute fidelity to this approach and this is the Phonics programme we use from entry to the school and throughout the time they need it. We start teaching Phonics in Foundation Stage 1 and follow the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds revised progression, which ensures children build on their growing knowledge of the alphabetic code, mastering Phonics to read and spell as they move through school. Throughout the programme, children learn the English alphabetic code along with the letter-sound correspondences at a rapid pace with the help of simple and enjoyable mnemonics. Once the children have grasped the alphabetic code, they continue accessing Little Wandle. However more time is dedicated to further developing their fluency and comprehension skills until they become the fluent and confident readers that we aspire them to become.
We use Jane Considine’s ‘Hooked on Books’ to teach reading across the school. Through the use of this scheme, coupled with good quality texts, our pupils will develop positive attitudes to reading and improve their social, emotional and relational skills. ‘Hooked on Books’ provides the necessary stretch and challenge for our pupils to enable them to make the most progress. Research has proven that pupils who are good readers make good spellers, are happier and more empathetic. As a school, we at Woodnewton, believe it is our moral duty to be reading parents to our pupils and are committed to helping our pupils discover a lifelong love of books.
Key Aspects of ‘Hooked on Books’:
‘Slow Story’ and ‘Responsive Read’ is a two-week cycle that promotes reading for pleasure across the school
‘Book Talk’ is a whole class comprehension and a targeted group approach, ensuring all individuals are accountable for understanding the meaning of what is being read
‘The Reading Rainbow’ represents the three reasons to read; ideas, thoughts and vocabulary through the FANTASTICS lenses, understanding, meaning and comprehension through the STYLISTICS lenses and, competencies, interpretation and analysis through the ANALYTICS lenses.
‘Demonstration Reading’ is the art of modelling the internal thinking of a reader. This is to demonstrate how a reader thinks during the process of ‘reading for meaning’
‘Demonstration Comprehension’ is a clear, out loud thinking approach by the teacher whilst modelling answers to questions and showcasing “thesaurus thinking” to ensure the most precise words are used