Reading
“Reading is a passport to countless adventures.”
Mary Pope Osborne
What is the intent of Reading at Meadows?
Reading at Meadows is at the heart of all we do. From their first day at Meadows, children will be exposed to books, reading, exploring language and playing with words.
Through daily shared reading times (in ‘Golden Reading’ sessions), reading through all areas of the curriculum, story time assemblies and library time, children are surrounded by the world of books. Through this, children at Meadows understand the importance of reading; the enjoyment that they can gain from listening to and reading a good book; the vast wealth of knowledge they can acquire and the unknown worlds that they can step into.
When children leave Meadows they will have confidence, fluency and independence when reading for different purposes. They will have developed a deep understanding of fiction and non-fiction texts and be able to express personal preferences for the books that they have read, justifying their ideas. Deeper than this, we intend for all pupils to develop empathy for characters in fiction, comment on an author’s choice of language and develop their love of literature through reading for pleasure.
“Reading is a gateway skill that makes all other learning possible.”
Barak Obama
How is Reading implemented at Meadows?
At Meadows, we use Little Wandle Reading (Letters and Sounds Revised) to teach reading alongside their synthetic phonics. The programme of reading develops alongside their phonics, allowing children to learn to segment and blend words for reading. This leads to children learning to read with increasing fluency and speed.
Early Reading
Phonics (reading and spelling)
At Meadows we believe that all our children can become fluent readers and writers. This is why we teach reading through Letters and Sounds Revised, which is a systematic and synthetic phonics programme. We start teaching phonics in Reception and follow the Little Wandle progression document, which ensures children build on their growing knowledge of the alphabetic code, mastering phonics to read and spell as they move through school.
As a result, all our children are able to tackle any unfamiliar words as they read. At Meadows, we also model the application of the alphabetic code through phonics in shared reading and writing, both inside and outside of the phonics lesson and across the curriculum. We have a strong focus on language development for our children because we know that speaking and listening are crucial skills for reading and writing in all subjects.
Comprehension
In guided reading sessions, children learn to read with fluency (speed and accuracy), prosody (expression and intonation) and as their confidence with blending increases, they begin to share their comprehension of books and texts.
Key Stage 1 and 2
Children will complete guided reading sessions four days a week which will be delivered through a mix of group guided reading and whole class reading sessions.
Children learn discrete reading skills (VIPERS) which are used to support questioning.
Children complete and are assessed against the national curriculum objectives for reading (see the reading pathways).
VIPERS Skills:
V - Vocabulary
I – Inference
P - Prediction
E - Explaining
R - Retrieval
S - Summarising
Core Books:
We ensure a wide breadth of literature is experienced in our school through our Core Books which are embedded within our curriculum and Golden Read time.
meadows reading journey 2024 25.pdf
How does Reading progress at Meadows?
Reading initially progresses alongside the phonics programme, allowing children to have ample opportunities to develop skills and understanding of texts through:
Fluency- segmenting and blending to read with fluency, speed and accuracy.
Prosody- reading with expression, intonation and reading punctuation, ensuring meaning is clear.
Comprehension- demonstrating an understanding of reading completed by retelling stories, locating information in the text and expressing preferences from reading.
Throughout Key Stage 2, children have regular guided reading/ whole class reading sessions where they are taught to go beyond retrieval of information, moving on to make inferences about a text and the characters feelings and actions (in fiction texts), they are taught to skim and scan a text to rapidly and accurately locate and summarise information from their reading, learn how to use clues, information and prior knowledge to make suitable predictions about texts and explain a writer’s choices of layout and language.
All teachers use guided reading/ whole class reading sessions to introduce pupils to a range of genres and to teach a range of techniques which enable children to comprehend the meaning of what they read. More complex questions are evaluated between wider groups and teachers model how to refine answers to a high standard.
Reading is assessed at Meadows through termly NFER reading test papers, alongside formative assessments (continuous assessment through guided reading sessions). Children also sit SATs at the end of Key Stage 2.
How can I support my child in Reading?
- Use the phonics materials and advice for parents to support children to segment and blend to read.
- Use the supporting early reading materials to support reading.
- Notice the language all around us- on signs, in shops, in leaflets and on billboards.
- Read with your child regularly – it’s good for the body and soul!
- Visit the local library and enjoy choosing and sharing books together with your child.
- Use the following websites to access ebooks and find books to engage and entertain your child: