Reading
Reading at Woodstock Primary Academy is a priority. As an essential skill that not only supports learning in all areas of the curriculum but also a child’s future academic achievement. We recognise the impact that reading has on wellbeing and success in life and across the school we are working hard to develop positive attitudes towards reading. It is important that we give priority to the teaching of reading and support children in embracing a lifelong love of books so that they can understand what they are reading.
Reading is the gateway skill that makes all other learning possible.
Barack Obama
Our goal is to embed a culture of reading across the school; ensuring children show fluency and comprehension appropriate to their age. We aim to create an ethos that positively promotes books and reading through everyday practice. During their time at Woodstock, children will engage in a world of stories and text types and our intent is for children to confidently be able to retell some of these stories orally.
Whole Class Guided Reading
At Woodstock, to ensure that all children develop their love of literacy, we focus on exciting key texts for their year group; ensuring that when all children leave the school at the end of year 6, they can recall stories that we shared together with enthusiasm and excitement.
Central to our reading approach across all year groups is whole class guided reading. Children receive four adult led sessions over the week focusing on the explicit reading skills of: vocabulary, summarising, retrieval, and comprehension through a carefully selected class text. Children will practise their inference, prediction, explanation and summarising skills during the comprehension lessons and link their ideas to the text.
Children in reception and Key Stage One are also have the opportunity to read to an adult on a weekly basis through either small group guided reading sessions or 1:1 reading.
Reading for Pleasure
At Woodstock, Reading Ambassadors promote a love of reading by organising events at schools and supporting in our beautiful school library. The Reading Crew (Year 6 Pupils) will support younger pupils in paired reading sessions to ensure that pupils have even more opportunities to read for pleasure.
We have adopted a novel led approach which is used to engage children in reading and link with the wider writing to generate hooks and a purpose for writing. Each year group has a carefully selected reading spine created from a wide range of texts which acts as a common bank of stories that all children are exposed to throughout their time at Woodstock.
These high-quality texts are read to the children by an adult at the end of each day and our intent is to inspire children to develop their love of reading. Children also have the opportunity to browse a range of books and further celebrate reading through regular school library visits.
Reading at Home and Reading Miles
At Woodstock, it is expected that children are heard reading aloud or are read to at home at least 3 times a week and this must be recorded in their reading diary. In KS2, once a child finishes their reading book, they will take a quiz on the book using accelerated reader to assess their understanding of the text. They will then be allowed to change their book in the school library. To support this, we provide regular reading workshops to parents and guardians.
In EYFS and Key Stage One, children are provided decodable books that run alongside or a little behind the sounds taught in phonics using Oxford Owl Read Write Inc books.
- Sharing a book with a child is fun! You can find tips at https://www.booktrust.org.uk/books-and-reading/tips-and-advice/reading-tips/
Reading Miles
Speed towards success at Woodstock with reading miles! Listening to your child read at home and signing their reading diary will earn them reading miles in school.
How it works:
- All pupils read to an adult as many times a week as possible to collect miles on the school race track.
- Every time a child reads 3 times a week or more, they will earn miles for their class.
- The more miles earned = rewards for pupils and their class, all whilst improving reading along the way!
- Classes can earn reading prizes and accumulate points to become reading champions at the end of each term.
Accelerated Reader
In Key Stage Two, home reading is promoted through Accelerated Reader. Accelerated Reader provides children with a personal book level that aims to provide children with a challenge, without the frustration that can come when a book is too challenging. Children can read the book at their own pace before taking a quiz that provides them and their teacher with instant feedback on their understanding.
accelerated reader parent guide.pdf
Reading Celebration
Reading is celebrated and promoted at Woodstock through a number of initiatives.:
- Reading Miles – pupils are encouraged to read to an adult as often as they can to earn reading miles for their class.
- Assemblies are used for teachers to nominate a star reader for a pupil who has excelled with their reading across the week as well as celebrate the class who have earnt the most reading miles during the week.
- Once a class earns 50 miles they receive book tokens to spend on new books for their class book corner as well points that build to become the reading champions of the term.
- Displays around the school are used to promote current class books, recommended texts and reading miles.
We cannot stress the importance of reading at home enough and our children need your support. Reading is fundamental to children’s success in school and enables all learning to take place.
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