Cedarwood Primary School

Intent

We recognise the power that reading has in enabling pupils to acquire knowledge and build on what they already know, as well as its benefits to wider personal development. We therefore aim to develop confident, competent readers and seek to inspire in our pupils a life-long love of reading.

Through speaking, listening, reading and writing, pupils have the chance to develop culturally, emotionally, intellectually, socially and spiritually. Literature, especially, plays a key role in such development and we aim to introduce pupils to rich texts that capture their interests and inspire creativity.

Implementation

We follow the National Curriculum for English and have the following aims for the subject as a whole:

To promote high standards of language and literacy by equipping pupils with a strong command of the spoken and written language, and to develop their love of literature through widespread reading for enjoyment.

The National Curriculum for English aims to ensure that all pupils:

• read easily, fluently and with good understanding
• develop the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information
• acquire a wide vocabulary, an understanding of grammar and knowledge of linguistic conventions for reading, writing and spoken language
• appreciate our rich and varied literary heritage
• write clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences
• use discussion in order to learn; they should be able to elaborate and explain clearly their understanding and ideas
• are competent in the arts of speaking and listening, making formal presentations, demonstrating to others and participating in debate

At Cedarwood, our pupils learn best when they are provided opportunities to revisit, revise and reflect on their skills and understanding in order to apply their learning across all areas of the curriculum. Pupils are given opportunities to develop their use, knowledge and understanding of spoken and written English within a broad and balanced curriculum, with opportunities to consolidate and reinforce taught literacy skills.

We support this philosophy by:

•         teaching fluency and vocabulary skills that are key to reading comprehension
•         teaching and helping children to connect ideas within and between sentences which in turn will help them to understand the whole text
•         giving children experiences of reading aloud and talking about their own experiences which will help build reading skills
•         enabling children to develop and explore their skills in English with increasing maturity and awareness of audience
•         encouraging children to work and explore this subject independently and with others (pairs/groups) through speaking & listening activities, drama, writing for an        audience and purpose and philosophical discussions and debates
•         teaching children to critically analyse their work and the work produced by others
•         encouraging and celebrating creativity and imagination in this subject
•         teaching basic skills such as grammar terminology and comprehension leading to their application across the wider curriculum

Cedarwood’s creative curriculum is driven each term by key literary texts that are central to the topic.  These texts form part of the Cedarwood Reading Spine, of high quality texts that we believe should be read at each stage in our children’s education. The texts support and uncover rich textual discussion and strengthen and grow knowledge and understanding. They are placed a little above the year group reading age and are shared during daily story times and also used as excerpts within shared reading sessions, to support the explicit teaching of reading, developing a strong dialogic talk within every classroom.

The following drivers have been carefully considered when selecting these texts:

• A mix of female and male protagonists

• Texts focused on identity (who am I / LGBT / disability)

• Culturally diverse texts – reflecting an inclusive society and avoiding stereotypes

• Texts which promote The British Values

• Historically significant texts

• Environmentally significant texts

• A picture Book to promote dialogic talk

• A poetry book to celebrate performance, rhythm, rhyme and discussion.

We reflect a range of non-fiction and poetry material in reading lessons and across the wider curriculum.

To support daily reading lessons, teachers utilise a range of resources, including the phonics scheme Rocket Phonics - by Rising Stars and the reading scheme Reading Planet - by Rising Stars, Power of Reading  and Accelerated Reader.

To structure and sequence lessons for each year group in accordance with the National Curriculum guidelines, we plan lessons which build children's knowledge and skills in each years group. Please see the Progression of Skills in Reading for more details. We seek opportunities to explore our school values: ARK – Attitude, Ambition, Resilience, Respect and Knowledge and Kindness, along with The British Values as we strive to be a global community. We consider that teaching through texts is a prime opportunity for showing through various characters and situations that all choices have consequences and that through such texts pupils develop their empathy and understanding in readiness for real situations in the future.

Prior to each topic children are immersed in experiences that allow them to access the curriculum and class text. Schema words and planning in other curriculum areas are deliberately organised to allow all children to gain a strong grasp of vocabulary to support their speaking, listening, reading and writing development.

Attainment and progress is closely monitored through the use of ongoing formative assessment techniques and summative assessments are made at the end of each term. Statutory assessments are also used to provide an overall picture of performance for individuals, specific groups and cohorts and comparisons are made against national figures for age related expectations. Pupil Progress meetings are used effectively, so that any underachievement is recognised quickly and actions are taken to remedy this.

We firmly believe that reading is the key to all learning and are aware that the impact of our reading curriculum goes beyond the results of the statutory assessments. We give all pupils the opportunity to enter the magical worlds that books open up to them and promote reading for pleasure. Children are encouraged to develop their own love of genres and authors and to review their books objectively. This enhances a deep love of literature across a range of genres, cultures and styles and we hope will instil in pupils a life-long love of reading.

Reading Impact

It is our intention at Cedarwood that every pupil achieves their full literary potential and we are committed to ensuring every child becomes a reader. By the time pupils leave Cedarwood, we aim for them to be confident, competent readers of a range of genres, who appreciate and enjoy reading for pleasure as well as to enhance their learning and development.