Reading in KS2

Intent, Implementation and Impact

At Goat Lees Primary School, we encourage a love of books and reading. We provide the children with many daily opportunities to enjoy and share books with others. Each classroom, alongside our well stocked library, has an inviting reading area with a wide range of reading materials to support all reading abilities.

Other reading opportunities throughout the day occur through a wide range of activities such as our reading lessons focusing on a text (fiction, non-fiction and poetry), story time when books are shared and enjoyed, texts linked to cross-curricular work and the use of our reading shed which is set up and monitored by our reading ambassadors for those who want to share a book at break times and lunchtimes.

Intent:

At the heart of our curriculum lie our school values (respect, responsibility, honesty and pride) and these are reflected in the daily life of school. At Goat Lees Primary School, reading is a top priority and is a key driver for our curriculum. We have a team who work closely together with a member of staff from EYFS, KS1 and KS2 to ensure coverage and progression. It is our intention to ensure that by the end of their primary education, all pupils are able to read fluently, and with confidence, in any subject in their forthcoming secondary education.

We therefore intend to encourage all pupils to read widely across both fiction and non-fiction to:

• Develop fluency in order to establish an appreciation and love of reading
• Develop their comprehension skills
• Gain knowledge across the curriculum
• Develop knowledge of themselves and the world in which they live
• Be capable readers in preparation for the demands of secondary school

Implementation

Phonics in KS2

‘It is essential that, by the end of their primary education, all pupils are able to read fluently, and with confidence, in any subject in their forthcoming secondary education.’ English National Curriculum (DfE, 2013)

Children in KS2 who are not reading at age-related expectations are assessed and placed on the appropriate phase of the Rapid Catch-up programme. They are taught daily, including three reading practice sessions a week. Children who have completed the programme, secured all of the Phase 5 GPCs and can read them with ease, and have a reading accuracy speed of 90+ words per minute are ready to exit the phonics instruction part of the Rapid Catch-up programme. They will however, continue taking part in reading sessions, three times a week.

Whole class reading KS2

Children in KS2 will take part in five whole class reading sessions per week. Discrete reading sessions should last no more than 30 minutes, to ensure pupils remain engaged and to make a distinction between these sessions and English or literacy lessons. It is important that we don’t teach the reading domains discretely but rather include all skills of reading so children develop a love of reading and the book/extracts being studied.

• For three days (Tues-Thurs), the class teacher selects a high-quality piece of children's literature (including poetry) or non-fiction text that will challenge all pupils. It should be at a level beyond that at which they can read independently. The text can be linked to a relevant topic and used to benefit other subjects. For children who might find this harder to read, they will have a pre teaching session with a TA before the lesson to become familiar with the text and to learn new vocabulary.
• The learning objective for the session is the same for all pupils. Pupils will have access to the same activities and levels of questioning but with differing levels of support provided depending on pupil needs.
• On Tuesday, the teacher reads the text to the class, modelling fluency, intonation and comprehension, and pupils follow the text with their own copy. The children then have the opportunity to develop their reading skills through echo reading, choral reading or paired reading.
• The teacher should avoid selecting individual children to read aloud during whole-class reading. 'Cold reading' an unfamiliar, difficult text can be a negative experience for pupils who are developing their confidence. Instead, the teacher could take opportunities to listen to individuals reading after they have read and modelled good practice.
• On Wednesday and Thursday, the teacher uses skilful questioning and discussion to help pupils get to grips with new vocabulary and develop their understanding of the text.
• Pupils work on activities that help them to develop their comprehension of the text. Depending on the activity, pupils may work in mixed-ability groups, pairs or by themselves. Activities do not always need a written outcome, for example you may use drama to help children explore a character through role play, debates or freeze frames. Any recording is made in their reading jotters.
• We understand that it is important for children to also have the opportunity to explore whole texts and not just extracts. So on Monday and Friday, the whole class sessions are based around the class novel. Each class will be read to at least 4 x weekly for 15-20 minutes (usually at the end of the day but not exclusively).
• On Monday, the majority ofthe lesson should be spent recapping the events that have happened, discussing character developments and thinking about how and why events have unfolded. ​Teachers use some well-craftedquestions they have gathered through the week in their yellow recording book and allow time for children to discuss in pairs or groups with adult support. There will be plenty of inference and retrieval in these sessions, but these are not the main focus. More complex questions are used between wider groups and teachers model how to refine answers to a high standard.
• On Friday we go back to our class novel to develop our skills of summarising and predicting as this is too hard to teach with extracts. ​Again, we will recap the text since we’ve read all week, then move onto these two skills.​

Reading Interventions:

Reading interventions focus on:

• Word reading for children who are struggling to decode.
• Reading comprehension for those children who can decode fluently but do not understand what they are reading.

Implementation – Wider Reading and Reading for Pleasure:

Each unit of work in History/Geography is supported by a range of quality fiction/non-fiction texts. These are used for fact finding, group projects and reading for meaning/pleasure. We have a group of reading ambassadors in UKS2 who support reading for pleasure by:

• Running a book doctor clinic in the school library
• Leading reading assemblies
• Organising reading competitions
• Promoting the use of the reading shed at break/lunchtimes
• Organising and running our whole school book swap
• All children have a bookmark to collect stickers when they read at home. They collect stickers towards being awarded bronze, silver and gold reading certificates and finally a prize from the book cupboard.
• All children in KS2 have the opportunity to take home the class reading journal to create their own page based on a book they have read. This is like a book review with art work to encourage other children in their class to read this books as well.

If you would like to read the Reading Ambassadors' newsletter for Term 1: please click here.

Home Reading Books:

In KS2, your child might still bring home two books. 1) A reading practice book – Collins Big Cat which is banded as this allows children to read shorter books about a variety of subjects at their reading level. 2) A sharing book. In order to encourage your child to become a lifelong reader, it is important that they learn to read for pleasure. The sharing book is a book they have chosen for you to enjoy together. Please remember that you shouldn’t expect your child to read this alone. Read it to, or with them, perhaps read a page each. Discuss the pictures, enjoy the story, predict what might happen next, use different voices for the characters, explore the facts in a non-fiction book. The goal is enjoyment! As your child moves through school and becomes a fluent, confident reader with good comprehension of what they are reading, they will move away from banded books and onto longer chapter books from the library. Although your child may now like to read on their own, it is still important for you to share the book with them and discuss what has happened in the book.

Parents are requested to fill in an individual reading record in order to give the school feedback on their child's reading progress.

Impact

Our aim is that children can read fluently by the end of Key Stage 1, enabling them to fully access learning at Key Stage 2 and beyond.

By the time children leave Goat Lees Primary School, we aim for them to be able to:

• read a wide range of high-quality fiction, non-fiction & poetry, effectively for purpose and with enjoyment and enthusiasm when for pleasure.
• decode texts clearly, fluently and confidently both internally and when reading aloud.
• accurately answer a range of comprehension, inference and language-focused questions about texts.
• express their opinions about texts and author’s intent/style with confidence and clarity. 

 Reading is assessed in the following ways:

Statutory Assessment Year 1: Children take part in the Phonics Screening check, any child not passing the check resits in Year 2.

Statutory Assessment Year 2: Children are assessed in Reading as part of the end of Key Stage 1 SATs.

Statutory Assessment Year 6: Children are formally assessed in Reading as part of the end of Key Stage 2 SATs. 

In School Assessments:

Children undertake assessments using the NfER reading tests (Year 1 from Spring term). Progress is measured using standardised scores. Analysis is undertaken of trends in the types of questions where a cohort might have found more challenging.

Informal assessments - Teachers continuously assess children’s attainment and progress during individual and whole class reading sessions.

If you would like to see our 'end points' document for reading across the whole school, please click here.