Reading
Psalm 119:105
Encouraging a life-long love of reading
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Organisation of English - Reading
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English Lessons - Reading
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Enrichment - Reading for Pleasure and Reading Pledge
Organisation of English – Reading
At Eltham Church of England School, we strive to nurture a love of reading and recognise the importance of children becoming fluent and confident readers that have a life-long love of reading.
Children access a wide range of texts throughout their time at school. Children enjoy hearing texts read to them through their English lessons and story. Teachers help children acquire the tools to become confident readers through the rigorous teaching of phonics, vocabulary and comprehension skills. Parents and carers are encouraged to read at home with their children nightly and record this in home contact books.
Our reading curriculum is structured using the components of word reading and comprehension as outlined in the programmes of study for Key Stages 1 and 2 in the NC 2014.
Click here for the DfE English Programmes of Study – KS1 & KS2
“DERIC skills help me in literacy a lot to know what we have to do in other subjects.”
Year 5 child
Guided Reading is taught daily as a discreet 30 minute lesson and focuses on teaching our key ‘DERIC’ reading skills which are: decoding, explaining, retrieval, inference and authorial choice.
We use Essential Letters and Sounds in EYFS and Year 1 which is a Systematic Synthetic Phonics (SSP) programme to deliver high quality phonics lessons and teach children how to read through the act of decoding and blending.
In Key Stage 1, reading is taught as part of a carousel of activities which include spelling/phonics, grammar and punctuation, (until the Spring term of Year 2). Home reading books in EYFS and Key Stage 1 are from the Oxford Reading Tree banded books scheme, which are phonetically decodable. In Year 3 to support transition, ‘real’ banded books are used to continue the progression in reading. In Y4-Y6 children are able to select appropriate texts from a range of high quality books in class libraries.
Throughout KS2 (and from the Spring term of Year 2), Guided Reading is taught using a ‘whole class approach.’ Teachers carefully select texts from a range of genres before planning schemes of work in order to support the children’s progress in the key reading skills of Decoding, Evaluating, Retrieving, Inferring and authorial Choice (DERIC). Whole Class Guided Reading sessions use high quality selected whole texts or text extracts based on End of Year expectations which are prescribed by the National Curriculum. We are committed to enabling our children to be confident in the skills of reading, meaning that Whole Class Guided Reading sessions focus on these key reading skills and through modelling both verbally and in written form, teachers provide clear structures for children to learn the skills of reading. Therefore, children at Eltham C of E will become confident in accessing learning that takes place across the curriculum and have a knowledge of a range of different genres of texts that they will be exposed to in their daily lives.
Class room environments are reading and vocabulary rich. In Reception, Year 1 and 2, display reflects the taught synthetic phonics and in Years 2-6 a Guided Reading display/working wall with the DERIC acronym is clearly displayed. Furthermore, each classroom has an inviting book area to promote a love of reading.
English Lessons – Reading
Key Stage 1
KS1 children sharing a story in our reading rainforest
Pupils are encouraged to read for pleasure, understand what they have read and begin to read with expression. They begin to read more independently and with enthusiasm.
- Daily carousel guided reading until Summer term of Year 2
- Daily whole class guided reading from Summer term of Year 2
- Lessons last 30 minutes
- Daily 30 minute Phonics lesson
- Reading in a range of subjects across the curriculum
- Story time
Key Stage 2
Children are encouraged to develop a love of reading and to read a wide range of texts for enjoyment and pleasure. They should explore the use of language in literary and non-literary texts and learn how the structure of language works. On a daily basis, children use their reading skills across the curriculum.
- Daily whole class guided reading
- Lessons last 30 minutes
- Reading in a range of subjects across the curriculum
- Story time
“I love when my teacher reads as she reads with so much expression and engagement, it’s enjoyable.”
Year 5 child
Enrichment: Reading for Pleasure and Reading Pledge
In response to parent and child surveys and informed by the significant amount of research identifying the benefits of reading for pleasure, Eltham Church of England School has a ‘Reading Pledge’. We are committed to reading for pleasure and alongside our taught curriculum, children have the opportunity to immerse themselves in high quality fiction through our class libraries. Our ‘Reading Pledge’ aims to make Reading for Pleasure central in our children’s lives and through our curriculum, classroom environments and links with families we nurture a love of reading.
Events to support this may include:
- story teller visits;
- author visits;
- Reading festival day where children wore their PJ’s to school;
- book fairs;
- planned whole school reading events that take place across the school year including: National Poetry Day (Oct), Contemporary Multicultural Week (Oct), National Story Telling Week (Jan/Feb), International Book Giving Day (Feb), Reading Festival (Mar), World Book Day (Mar), Lollies Shortlist (Apr);
- our ‘Reading Rainforest Library’ also promotes a love of reading and classes are timetabled to use the ‘Reading Rainforest’ on a weekly basis.
- children are given the opportunity in every year group to visit the Eltham Centre Library every two weeks where they are able to take out books of their choice.
“I love story time because my teacher uses different voices.”
Year 4 child
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Recommended Reads
Please find below some links to recommended reads for each year group taken from the booksfortopics website.