Reading

At Whipton Barton Federation, we love reading and value the many benefits that it provides. We believe it is key for academic success and it plays a big part across our Curriculum on a daily basis. We promote a reading culture that inspires children to love reading, makes them want to read and helps them to develop into ardent, avid readers and life-long learners.

“The more that you read, the more things you will know.

The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go!”

– Dr. Seuss

Reading happens every day and all year groups have daily Drop Everything and Read (DEAR) sessions. This might involve the children reading independently to promote their reading for pleasure or being read to by the class teacher; it is a time for everyone to literally drop everything and enjoy reading, nothing else! We have carefully selected a rich range of DEAR books for the teachers to read to the classes – this selection incorporates five types of texts that children should have access to in order to successfully navigate reading with confidence. For example, texts with: archaic language, non-linear time sequences, complex narratives, figurative and symbolic elements and resistant meaning.

Every classroom has its own ‘Class Library’ containing a selection of books that are updated regularly; the books may link directly to the units of learning or the books may have been chosen by the children and adults linking to specific genres.  All children, from Nursery to Year 6, have regular opportunities to visit our libraries; sessions can include input from adults about different authors, discussing and listening to stories or children can take out a book to take home and share with their family. We work closely with our local Schools' Library Service to keep our book stock current, and to ensure that we have something for everyone. Children are encouraged to make suggestions to staff of any books that they’d like to see in our selection!

Children are able to use our Library for collaborative learning and developing independent research skills. Our Library Assistant supports children and staff in using the Library effectively and along with our pupil Library Monitors, helps to keep it organised, updated and accessible to all.

In EYFS, through daily storytelling and Literacy sessions, the children become immersed in stories that are at the heart of the learning and used as stimulus to develop language, vocabulary and foundational skills. Our Reception and Year 1 classes progress through Phonics books – these are Phase and Set specific, in keeping with our Phonics programme, Little Wandle - Letters and Sounds Revised, which match the children's attainment in Phonics. Adults will regularly listen to children read to assess their fluency and understanding, and then match this to the appropriate book level.

Children in Years 2 to 6 follow Accelerated Reader (AR) - a reading management and monitoring programme that aims to foster independent reading. The internet-based software assesses reading age, and suggests books that match pupils’ needs and interests. Pupils take computerised quizzes on the books and earn AR points as they progress.

We love Accelerated Reader for the following reasons:

• The programme gives children significantly greater choice in levelled books that offer appropriate challenge.
• It provides immediate and regular feedback to children.
• Accelerated Reader allows teachers to make in depth and accurate assessments of children’s reading and comprehension.
• Crucially, it motivates children to read independently and more frequently.
• A love of reading is developed and fostered!

In Early Reading, we recommend that children read their book three times at home; these sessions are designed to focus on three key reading skills:

• decoding
• prosody – reading with meaning, stress and intonation
• comprehension – understanding the text

We ask families to record their child’s reading progress in their child's reading record book.

Years 2 to 6 have Whole Class Reading lessons which focus on a different book each term; these are high-quality texts chosen by our Reading Lead and Curriculum Lead, supported by Literacy Shed+ resources. Adults and children read the book together and the discussions and learning are focused around skills such as fact retrieval, inference, understanding an author’s choice of punctuation and vocabulary or summarising what they have read so far.

 “Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.”

- Joseph Addison

Writing

At Whipton Barton Federation, we endeavour to create a love for writing. We want every child to leave the Federation with the skills of an excellent writer who:

• Has the ability to write with fluency and has an author’s voice;
• Thinks about the impact they want their writing to have on the reader and knows how they will achieve this;
• Has a sophisticated bank of vocabulary and an excellent knowledge of writing techniques to extend details or description;
• Can structure and organise their writing to suit the genre they are writing and include a variety of sentence structures;
• Displays excellent transcription skills that ensure their writing is well presented, punctuated, spelled correctly and neatly;
• Re-reads, edits and improves their writing so every piece of writing they produce is to the best of their ability and better than the last.

Throughout their time at Whipton Barton Federation, children develop their writing skills by exploring a whole range of different genres. We expect the highest standards of writing every time a child writes in any subject, not just in English lessons, and place great importance on the planning, drafting, editing and rewriting process when writing at length. Teachers plan their writing sessions using Babcock ‘Texts that Teach’, No Nonsense Literacy, No Nonsense Grammar and Hamilton Trust resources.

Some of the genres that the children will experience are as follows: