Love of Reading at Whinmoor St Paul’s Primary School
Reading is at the heart of everything we do from Nursery to Year 6, from our classes being named after the Little People, Big Dreams book series to celebrating diversity and different cultures, to our weekly Library sessions and texts linked to our Christian values. Reading permeates through our whole curriculum and you will sense this as soon as you arrive in school and as soon as you speak to our children! At Whinmoor St Paul’s Primary we want our pupils to have a love of reading that remains with them all of their life. The teaching of early reading begins with phonics and this is the key to forming that love of reading. Phonics is taught using the Little Wandle scheme and consists of short daily whole class sessions with a specific order of teaching phonemes and tricky words, as well as lots of repeated practice.
We expect pupils at Whinmoor St Paul’s Primary to develop a habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and a way of gaining information. We promote our reading culture in the following ways:
– Love of Reading sessions – these are weekly sessions for all classes, which allow children to pick texts apart under different mediums such as art, dance, drama, discussion, outdoor learning etc.
– DEAR sessions – these sessions take place twice a week in all classes. The sessions are time set aside in the classroom for both children and adults to drop everything and read, as well as a way of building up the children’s stamina when reading.
– Reading Journals – KS2 classes all take part in journaling sessions, which provide children with a thinking space to explore and reflect on their reading experience through writing, drawing and raising their own questions. It is also a great way of encouraging peer discussion around a variety of texts.
– Visits to the school Library – All classes have a weekly slot to visit our wonderful library. Children have the opportunity to choose books, engage in book talk and listen to stories read by others. We even have ‘Come Along and Read with Us’ sessions where families are invited to enjoy this experience with us.
– Reading Identities and surveys – At the beginning of the year each class explore how they see themselves as a reader. Surveys are completed and used as a basis to purchase new books for our class libraries. We listen to our children!
– Outdoor Library – We love to show our children that you can read anywhere! We are developing our outdoor library to provide children with the option to take their reading outside and encourage a range of learning opportunities to take place.
– Reading Teachers – Alongside the use of high-quality texts in English lessons, every pupil is read to daily by adults in schools for at least 15-20 minutes. All adults in school are reading teachers, they strive to help children read fluently, comprehend what they’re reading and train them in phonics, grammar, and vocabulary. Teachers act as role models and experts when reading and support the children (novices) when listening to and reading texts through a range of strategies, such as, ‘choral reading’, ‘echo reading’ and ‘jump in reading’. Teachers invest time in getting to know who the children are as a reader and provide reading support and books they will love. Reading Identities and surveys are analysed and responded to by purchasing books, magazines and graphic novels for class libraries.
– Class Magazine Subscriptions – As a response to Reading Surveys and Identities, each class now has a monthly magazine subscription. Each subscription has been chosen by the children and based on their interests. Children and teachers have the opportunity to explore a monthly copy of their chosen magazine and engage in lots of fun activities and games together.
– Reading in the curriculum – At Whinmoor St Paul’s we regard the teaching of Reading at the centre of everything we do. Reading forms a pivotal part of our curriculum. Our aim is to offer the strongest SSP (Systematic and Synthetic phonics) teaching, which is taught consistently in EYFS and KS1 through Little Wandle Phonics Programme and ensures that pupils’ make the strongest start, so that their confidence in reading and language comprehension can be built upon year after year. Pupils should always be ready for the next stage of their progressive reading journey, through explicit teaching and timely interventions.
– Book-talk – At Whinmoor St Paul’s we value the importance of book-talk and aim to provide children with the opportunities to talk about books, develop the confidence to offer ideas and then reshape them in light of other contributions. Children engage in book-talk based on a chosen text during a range of sessions, including Whole Class Reading, Love of Reading and Reading Journals. Children are provided with a variety of opportunities to respond to texts in different ways. In all classes, a thinking space is provided for children to explore and reflect on their reading experience.
– Storytimes – Every class ends the day with a story.
– Our teachers are expert readers – This means that when they read aloud to children, they provide a model of fluency and expression that children can then replicate in their own reading. End of day story times are a vital opportunity to promote books and authors that children may not choose to read themselves. Children and teachers have opportunities to enjoy stories together without pressure and expectations attached to it.
–Poetry in our Reading Curriculum – Reading poetry helps to develop important language and literacy skills. At Whinmoor St Paul’s, each class has a poetry focus on a termly basis where children are able to develop their vocabulary, creative thinking and oracy skills. Whinmoor St Paul’s we hold an annual Poetry Slam event, where all children are given the opportunity to study performance poetry, learn a new poem and perform it in front of an audience. This encourages children to speak and perform in front of an audience, work on their confidence and of course, have fun.
– We keep up to date with the latest research – we have worked alongside the Jerry Clay Reading Hub, Teresa Cremin, the Open University and EEF! This is a way of ensuring that our children have the richest reading offer!
‘There can be few things as powerful as regularly reading to a young child. It has astonishing benefits for children: comfort and reassurance, confidence and security, relaxation, happiness and fun. Giving a child time and full attention when reading them a story tells them they matter. It builds self-esteem, vocabulary, feeds imagination and even improves their sleeping patterns. literacytrust.org.uk