Reading at Kingsley CP School S Harrison & L Mills January 2015

Why? Books create warm emotional bonds between adults and children when they read together They help children develop basic language skills and vocab Books are interactive, they make children think Books develop and nourish children’s imaginations Books help us to reflect on what is right and wrong, good and bad They create and answer questions Books are great companions Books inspire us, comfort us and entertain us They offer a wide breadth of information, experience and knowledge

At Kingsley we believe That all children should be given the opportunity to share and enjoy books and be given a rich experience Learn to read through fun, engaging activities That a whole school, progressive approach is the key to unlocking their reading potential Regular reading motivates and inspires children to write, drawing on their wealth of vocabulary Research shows that children who are given these regular opportunities achieve higher levels across the curriculum (This is supported by school data)

Whole School Approach Every child in our school will have an individual reading folder. This will contain: A kingsley journal – a communication book between home and school, primarily for reading comments. However, if a message needs to be given to the class teacher, it can be written in here. Reward Bookmark A bank of activities (within Kingsley Journal) A Guided Reading book or text An individual reading book A Rwinc book (if applicable)

Kingsley Journal The reading folder, including Kingsley Journal, must be returned to school every day Once a week, your child will receive a Guided Reading homework task, this will be stuck in and completed in the journal Teachers may comment regarding individual children’s reading Parents are encouraged to comment in the journal on a regular basis Grammar/spelling homework will also be in the folder Teachers will discuss their journal, with the children, once a week (on their Guided Reading day). Therefore, if there are any comments that need to be read urgently, please make sure your child hands it directly to the teacher

Rewarding reading Every child will have a bookmark in their Kingsley journal For every Homework task they complete, they will earn a sticker. These tasks may be set by the teacher, or chosen from the bank of activities Once your child has completed a bookmark, they will be invited to a reading award afternoon with Mrs Harrison (these award sessions will happen once every half term) Another bookmark will then be issued once completed

Guided Reading Once a week, your child will have a focused Guided Reading session with their teacher The book used during this session will be sent home with an accompanying task. Your child will have one week to complete this. School is investing a substantial amount of money into developing our reading resources for the benefit of all of our children. It is imperative that the reading books are looked after and returned to school on time.

What is Guided Reading? Guided Reading is a session that takes place every day in our school between 1 and 1:30 (mornings in EYFS) During this time, the children in each class are split into ability based groups Over the course of the week, they will take part in 5 different activities to promote and develop specific reading skills See carousel/timetable

Example of carousel DayGroup 1Group 2Group 3Group 4Group 5 Monday Focus GroupReading response task Individual reading task Research TaskDiscussion group Tuesday Comprehension Activity Focus GroupReading response task Individual reading task Research Task Wednesday Research Task Comprehension Activity Focus GroupReading response task Individual reading task Thursday Individual reading task Research Task Comprehension Activity Focus GroupReading response task Friday Reading response task Individual reading task Research Task Comprehension Activity Focus Group

What does the focused group look like? Text introduction – this could be looking at the cover and making deductions, completing a book walk, reading the blurb etc Strategy Check – introduce what strategy the children will be developing during the session (linked directly to the AF that you are focusing on) Independent reading – ask the children to read a specific part NOT aloud to the group. Adult should move around the group stopping by the child, as you stop next to the child they should read aloud to you. As the children get used to this system they will know to do so. Before beginning, give the children a focus question – preferably written and put on display. Returning to text – discussion around what has been read. Specific focus given to the question. May ask the children to write their answers – post its are useful as evidence Responding to text – develop further understanding of text

Reading at Home In order to give your child the best support, we ask that you read with them regularly at home. Short regular sessions (10 minutes) is far more beneficial than a long chunk of time once a week Reading is far more than word recognition. Whilst your child is learning to decode, it is best to spend 50 % of your time developing word recognition and 50% discussing the book. As they become fluent, the discussion time should be given more emphasis In the early stages of reading, using ‘what’ and ‘where’ questions works well. In order to develop understanding/comprehension, ‘why’ and ‘how’ become very useful When reading together, encourage your child to have a go and praise as much as possible Whilst books brought home from school are a great start, please encourage your child to read at all times and a whole range of things eg signposts, the newspaper, leaflets, subtitles, football results

Supporting us in school As part of our drive to develop reading, we are trying to build up a group of adults (parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles etc) who can commit to regular sessions in school If you are interested in working with children and enthusiastic about reading, this might be the opportunity for you We will provide a short training session (with coffee and biscuits) DBS checks will also be carried out If you are interested, or know of somebody who is, please contact either Mrs Mills or Mrs Harrison

Other Developments Author of the month Reading challenge Extreme Reading challenge Book Week (March) An accessible library to all