At Talbot Primary School we seek to instil a love of reading in all of our pupils through an expansive reading journey that begins in EYFS. Through their time at our school, pupils are exposed to a range of wonderful texts which are full of rich vocabulary, compelling stories and distinctive characters. We believe that reading is the key to unlocking learning across the curriculum and feel that engaging texts are the first step towards unlocking a lifetime of reading.

EYFS & KS1

Phonics (Little Wandle)

Our pupils’ journey towards becoming fluent readers begins from their first day at our school. We have embedded the teaching of phonics through the Little Wandle programme across our school, with this taught daily through EYFS and KS1. This programme ensures children build their knowledge of the alphabetic code and master phonics which supports their reading and spelling as they move through their school career. Since the introduction of Little Wandle, our school has secured results that have surpassed national results at the Year 1 Phonics Check.

This scheme includes the daily teaching of phonics in EYFS and Year 1 as well as 3 reading sessions per week with books which match each child’s phonic level. During these reading sessions all children are heard read by an adult who will support theme with their decoding (using their phonic knowledge to sound out words) and prosody (reading with expression). At the end of the week, pupils then take these books home to share their reading success with their adults. Reading session continue into Year 2 where children eventually move on to longer ‘LW Fluency’ books. Teachers continue to focus on prosody and comprehension skills with pupils as they read these longer 'chapter books'.

 

KS2

Whole Class Reading

Once children join Year 2, they continue to build on the progree they have made using the Little Wandle scheme in EYFS & KS1. Reading is taught daily in KS2 with a focus text which year groups will usually read over the course of 3-4 weeks. We again, ensure that the diet of books read is wide with texts ranging from classics to non-fiction texts, poetry, contemporary titles and books from a range of backgrounds.

Each session through the week has a different purpose but focusses on the same extract from their text. In Monday's session, pupils will analyse the extract, identify any unfamiliar vocabulary and then use the skills taught to find definitions. Tuesday's session focusses around prosody, building on the skills learned in KS1. In this session, pupils will orally rehearse and practice reading the passage before reading aloud to a partner, as part of a group or as a class. In Wednesday's lesson, pupils unpick decisions that the author has made by analysing their word choices and use of language. On Thursday, pupils will answer comprehension questions around the text that may include retrieval, inference of sequencing style questions - we focus on allowing the pupils to discuss the book rather than writing written responses. In the final lesson of the week, the class are able to continue reading the story as a class with opportunities to read aloud and hear their teacher model reading with fluency - this final session is a chance to enjoy the text which we feel helps nurture our pupils' love of reading.

 

Accelerated Reader

When children join KS2 they continue to grow as readers through the introduction of Accelerated Reader. This programme motivates students to read more through engaging quizzes, goal setting, and personalised recommendations. As students increase their reading volume, they develop greater reading stamina, word recognition, and language comprehension skills.

We begin by assessing the pupils using an assessment tool called STAR Reader - pupils complete this by reading short extracts of text and answering multiple choice questions about the extracts. The questions are adaptive so they match each child's ability -  varying the difficulty of the extracts as necessary. Once this is completed, the programme tells us each pupil's Reading Age as well as their Reading Range or 'ZPD' (Zone of Proximal Development) - this process is completed each term.

Pupils then choose books to read which are assessed as being within their Reading Range. Once they have read the book, they take a short comprehension quiz on the book which assesses their understanding. These are completed on a school computer or iPad and the data from each quiz is available for our staff to track and coach each child to success.

We have a number of incentives which support engagement with Accelerated Reader including termly competitions, school displays and the chance for pupils to become 'Word Millionaires'.

You can find out more about how Accelerated Reader works at Talbot by clicking here.

Story Time

This is an integral part of our school day and happens every day in all classes at 2:45. The school has a 'Reading Spine' which is continually added to and includes a range of children's classics, poetry and contemporary titles - you can view this in the images below. Pupils choose titles from this spine to be read during Story Time. We also give our teachers the opportunity to share books that they are passionate about with their pupils. Story Time is a part of the day where informal book talk may be held but the main goal is to foster a love of reading and storytelling.

Browse our 'Reading Spine' below...

The School Library

Our School Library is an area we utilise regularly. Each class has designated time to visit the library as part of their timetable. Classes can use this time to read and explore new books, use the non-fiction books for researching and also borrow books to take home. Some of our Year 6 'Reading Champions' also run book clubs through the week that children attend at lunchtime.

 

Further Enrichment

As a school, we aim to also provide multiple opportunities for further enrichment as part of our reading curriculum. Part of this is our Talbot Tales shelf which is updated each month with a different theme from 'Back to School' to Black History Month and 'Spring has Sprung' to Christmas. These texts are available for our pupils to browse and borrow to be read during Story Time.

Another success has been our school wide Book Club which Mr Browne ran through whole school assemblies. This began with Mr Browne bringing in two of his favourite books - Tadpoles Promise and Watership Down. He offered these titles out to any child who wanted to borrow them as long as when they returned them, they also offered one of their favourite books to be borrowed. This gave pupils from across KS1 and KS2 the opportunity to share their favourite books with others whilst also discovering a range of new titles. As you can see from the picture below, it was very popular!

We also seek to make the most of World Book Day each year. Last year's theme was poetry which saw all children in the school learn to recite a poem with their class which they performed for the rest of the school. 

Pupils also wrote their own poems and were able to enjoy sharing lots of poetry in their classes.

Moving forward we seek to find more opportunities to add to the reading opportunities our pupils have including visits from authors and inviting our families in for 'Books at Bedtime' again.