Reading at Withymoor

At Withymoor, our vision is that all children will leave Year 6 reading confidently, fluently and with positive reading habits, reading for pleasure and to further their own knowledge.

This journey begins as soon as they join us, through sharing a wide range of stories, rhymes and songs alongside teaching the skills they need through our systematic phonics scheme, Little Wandle, which enables children to successfully decode phonetically decodable books. Once children are confident and fluent readers, they are immersed in whole class teaching of reading using strategies from the Reading Reconsidered methodology and includes opportunities to continue to develop fluency skills and answer text dependent questions based on the reading domains (VIPERS). To support this, a reading-based comprehension activity will be completed weekly.

Aims

• In EYFS & KS1, teach children to decode using phonics following the Little Wandle accredited phonic scheme.
• In KS2, teach explicit reading skills, developing children’s competence in word reading, fluency and comprehension.
• Encourage reading for pleasure through teachers daily reading aloud the class text and weekly book talk sessions.
• Provide our children with engaging reading material.
• Provide all children with regular access to the school library.
• Provide inviting reading areas in classrooms for children.

EYFS & KS1

In EYFS & KS1, teach phonics for at least 20 minutes a day, following the Little Wandle accredited phonics scheme.

Children will read a phonetically matched book 3 times a week before taking it home.

They will also take home a book to share, which may not be a decodable book.  The purpose of this book is to encourage shared reading at home and foster a love of story and reading. 

Reading in KS2

In KS2, reading lessons will be taught at least three times a week for 20 minutes. Children will be taught explicit reading skills to develop children’s competence in word reading, fluency and comprehension.  Teachers will use strategies from Reading Reconsidered to teach children how to answer text dependent questions derived from the reading domains (VIPERS). The use of Layered Reading and Close Reading allows children to read challenging texts more than once, for example the same text/extract over the period of a week. Each reading of the text will be different, teaching a specific reading skill and using questioning to change the focus.  

Children will also select a personal reading book from age-appropriate books in their class.  

Recommended Reads

Teachers regularly allocate time to recommend books to the children and encourage children to do the same to foster a love of reading and increase time for book talk.

Each term, class teachers share a list of 'Recommended Reads' with their class and these are made available in the year group for children to borrow and read. The lists are made available on the school website (in Class pages) and on each Class Dojo.

Children are encouraged to read and review the books then add their thoughts to the 'Recommend a Read' book in their reading area.