Quick Links

Useful Links

Bangabandhu

Reading curriculum

The school is determined that all pupils will quickly become fluent readers and enjoy a range of high-quality books and texts. Staff are well trained so that the teaching of phonics is precise and accurate. Teachers act swiftly to support any pupils who struggle with reading, enabling them to catch up swiftly. Accurate and regular assessments ensure that pupils' books precisely match the sounds they are learning.  Older pupils are encouraged to become authors and compose their own short stories and poems.' (OFSTED 2024)

At Globe our core purpose is for our children to become fluent lifelong readers who have a genuine love of reading. 

We want children to ...

How is reading taught at Globe?

The 'Simple View of Reading' - The theory behind our practice

This is where reading comprehension is seen as a function of two components - decoding and language comprehension.  

Decoding means the ability to work out the sounds represented by written words.​

Language comprehension means the ability to interpret what the words mean individually and together.​

Skilled reading is considered to be impossible if either component is entirely lacking.  The researchers Gough and Tunmer expressed it as this equation:​

Decoding (D) x Language Comprehension (LC) = Reading Comprehension (RC)​

In this simple view of reading a person's reading comprehension will falter despite good decoding, if their language comprehension is weak and​ a person's reading comprehension will falter despite good language comprehension, if they have poor decoding.​Therefore we teach our children to decode and continually focus on develeping their language comprehension.

There are various 'element's to decoding and language comprehension which we teach.  

Decoding​ is broken down into the teaching of Phonics and Fluency,

Langauge comprehension is broken down into the following elements, all of which we teach:

Situation models​

Comprehension monitoring​

Inference​

Text structure​

Vocabulary​

Background knowledge​

Our reading curriculum is based on all the elements referred to above. 

Read Write Inc (Early Years and KS1) - Early Reading

From Early Years and into KS1 we use a reading programme called ‘Read Write Inc’ which fulfils all the reading requirements of the National Curriculum.  It is a synthetic phonics reading programme. 

Within the programme children are grouped according to their reading abilities and are regularly assessed to measure their progress. When progress is made they move through the book levels below.  These are the end points we aim for: 

Expectations

Sound play

 Ditty (*)

 

Green

Purple

Pink (*)

Orange

Yellow

Blue

Grey (*)

End of Reception

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

End of Year 1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

End of Autumn term, Year 2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Children’s reading progress is assessed by the ‘Reading Leader’ who is an experienced senior member of staff.

The children are assessed for accuracy, fluency and understanding of the texts from the range of texts they have studied within that book level. If successful they then move up to the next book level. When all the texts in Grey Level (13 stories) have been studied, and assessment is successful, the children come out of the programme and join the ‘genre’ group where they follow the school’s Literacy scheme of work. When a child enters a new book level parents are informed.  

If children have difficulties in remembering particular sounds or require extension work to develop their fluency or comprehension skills then they will attend 1:1 sessions with a member of staff that will enable them to ‘keep up’ with the programme’s daily learning and expectations.

Here are some videos that demonstrate how phonics are taught in school.

What is Read, Write, Inc. Phonics?

Understanding Phonics

How to say the sounds?

Help Your Child to Read with Phonics Booklet

Reading in Early Years - Nursery and Reception

Children begin their love of books in Nursery.

Attractive and inviting books with colourful illustrations and photographs are continually shared among adults and children whether indoors or outdoors and pertinent to the play activity they are involved in. When sharing the books adults model how to be a reader by using expression, intonation and gestures: all of which add to the engagement and ‘fun’ of reading. Adults will also use books to show children how they can be applied in everyday circumstances such as; reading a recipe when cooking a cake, reading instructions when learning how to play a game, reading an information book to find out how a car works or reading a funny poem to perform in class assemblies.

Children are also taught how to handle books and become familiar with the way books work - for example, role-playing an adult reading to the class by turning the pages, telling the story using pictures and saying phrases such as “Once upon a time”. Using story props, children are encouraged to use the stories they hear in their play as well as discuss the characters actions, predict the outcomes, suggest alternative endings and compare events in the stories with their own experiences.

In Reception, children continue to enjoy listening to a range of books daily and are taught to retell stories using correct sequence of events and applying its language pattern. They develop understanding that print carries meaning and in English, is read from left to right and top to bottom. Children also show an understanding of the elements of stories such as, the main character, variety of openings and how information can be found in non-fiction texts to answer questions about where, how, why and how. 

Phonics begins in Nursery where children listen to and join in with rhymes, alliteration, singing and clapping games, all very important activities which teach children to discriminate between and recognise sounds. Then, when appropriate the children move into small phonics groups where they are taught to recognise, read, pronounce and write sounds.

In Reception, children apply reading skills that are taught within the Read, Write Inc programme. This includes learning a new sound, hearing and say and sounds in the order they appear in a word and to use this knowledge to write simple ‘regular’ words and make phonetically plausible attempts at more difficult words. Every day, the children will learn to read a sight word; these are words that cannot be completely sounded out (known as ‘High Frequency Words’), (High Frequency Words List 1) and practise naming the letters of the alphabet. Children are also taught comprehension skills where they search for answers within the text as well as develop skills in providing opinions based on the events read.

Reception Phonics Home Learning Overview - A guide to what is sent home

Help Your Child to Read with Phonics Booklet

Here is a link to the Ruth Miskin website which has many other useful phonics and reading videos and information.

Reading in Key Stage One (Years One and Two)

In KS1 children continue to develop their reading skills where they spend an hour and fifteen minutes each day in their English groups.

Based on one text throughout the week, all children participate in the following reading activities, in the Read, Write, Inc. programme...

First read – story familiarity and sounding words.

Second time – to develop comprehension skills.

Third time – to develop fluency, expression and reading with punctuation.

Once children have finished the Read, Write Inc program they are then taught more advanced reading skills through daily English lessons and three addtional reading lessons each week; the main focus of these reading sessions being fluency. 

Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 Reading Fluency Curriculum

Our focus is on our children becoming fluent readers. 

Fluency is a pre-requisite for the comprehension that is the purpose of reading. Fluent reading is defined by Hudson et al as '… accurate reading of connected text at a conversational rate with appropriate prosody.'​ in other words, fluent reading involves accuracy, automaticity and prosody.​

Accuracy is the ability to decode written words without error. Naturally, all reading, be it aloud or silent, involves the odd stumble, even in the most capable of readers. Accurate reading is that in which such errors are rare, if not entirely absent.​

Prosody is the ability to read in a way that mirrors the sounds of natural language. This includes the intonation (the rise and fall in tone), stress (the prominence given to particular syllables, words or phrases) and rhythm. Prosody can be harder to define (or at least measure) than accuracy and automaticity due to the different ways people talk, but you will know it when you hear it. It sounds simply like the reading of a capable adult.​

Automaticity is the ability to read quickly and with relative ease. The rate at which a person reads depends not only on their skill, but also on the purposes of their reading and on whether they are reading orally or silently. 

We teach reading fluency lessons 3 times per week in addition to the daily English lesson.

Year 1 Reading Lesson Content Overview

Year 1 Reading Text Curriculum 

Year 2 Reading Lesson Content Overview

Year 2 Reading Text Curriculum

Year 3  Reading Lesson Content Overview

Year 3 Reading Text Curriculum 

Year 4 Reading Lesson Content Overview

Year 4 Reading Text Curriculum 

Year 5 Reading Lesson Content Overview

Year 5  Reading Text Curriculum 

Year 6 Reading Lesson Content Overview

Year 6 Reading Text Curriculum 

Accelerated Reading Programme

Throughout Key Stage 2 children take part in the Accelerated Reading Programme where, once they have read a book, they take an on-line reading quiz which checks how well they have understood what they have read. The guide below gives an overview of the programme and how it works.

Accelerated Reading - An Introduction for Parents

The English Curriculum

Key Stage 1 & 2 English Curriculum Overviews

Y1 Curriculum Overview

Y2 Curriculum Overview  

Y3 Curriculum Overview

Y4 Curriculum Overview

Y5 Curriculum Overview

Y6 Curriculum Overview

Reading Texts

In every year group throughout tall texts have been selected with the purpose to support children in their reading development.

These may be ...

Children who are mastering reading competencies and require more challenging texts with a wider range of titles, genres and authors, experience ...

However, the most important feature of our collection is that the texts, engage and positively reflect the children’s interests and backgrounds. 

All classrooms have attractive book areas where from a very early age children are taught to scan and choose their favourite story or text of interest. In addition to this children read stories each day at story time and are expected to read with parents each night and to record what they have read in the school’s ‘Reading Together’ home reading journal. It also provides opportunities for parents to write comments about how they feel their child’s reading is developing (reading together tips/guidance).

Once a week all children visit and borrow a book of their choice from the school’s library as well as regularly take ‘home’ reading books from the class library and/or ‘levelled’ book boxes. All children throughout the school (with the exception of Nursery) are provided with their own copy of the text they are currently studying in class in which they can practice and gain further understanding at home. 

'Must Reads'

Our Must Reads are a significant part of our reading provision and are explained in detail on the following page.  Please click here to take you to our Must Reads page.

Globe Must Reads - A Parent Guide

How do we assess children’s reading progress at Globe?

Reading is assessed each term for all children and progress is recorded, tracked and monitored.

Once children can proficiently comprehend a variety of texts (usually by the end of  Autumn term in Year 2) they start to partake in termly reading comprehension tests which the teachers analyse and identify individual targets which address the gaps in their understanding and/or application.  

There are three statutory reading assessments which have to be taken and these outcomes are reported to parents:

Y1 – A Phonics Screening

Children have to read 40 words:

20 of which are nonsense words in all which assesses children’s phonic knowledge. This test is usually taken in late June. A parents meeting is held in April where the ‘check’ requirements are explained in full (see Link).

Y2 – A Reading Test

Children take a reading comprehension test in May which covers fiction and non-fiction texts. 

A parents meeting is always held to explain the test requirements and how it is administered, and to address any concerns.

Y6 – A Reading Test

Along with a Spelling, Grammar and Punctuation test, and Maths tests, children also take a Reading Comprehension test.

This test covers fiction, non-fiction and poetry, and is taken in May. A parents meeting is held to explain the test requirements and how it is administered, and to address any concerns. 

How do we promote reading at Globe?

We continually strive to instil a love of reading in all children by having regular well established, enjoyable and exciting reading based activities and events which promote and strengthen the reading abilities in our school, for example;

This is just a taster as loads more happens in school. Below are some materials to explain some of what we do at school and resources to help parents support children’s reading at home. 

How to pronounce phonic sounds - http://www.ruthmiskin.com/en/resources/sound-pronunciation-guide/

Booklet ‘Help your child to read with phonics’

Word List years for Reception, Y1, Y2, Y3 and Y4, Y5 and Y6

Accelerated Reading - https://ukhosted4.renlearn.co.uk/1893647/  

Also found in our On-Line Home Learning Page

Phonics screen check (example from 2013)

Activities for children learning from Ditty books

Activities for children learning from Green, Purple, Pink and Orange story books

Activities for children learning from Yellow, Blue and Grey story books

Core reading books

Ideas to practice at home (activities for responding to reading) – Y1

Ideas to practice at home (activities for responding to reading) – Y2

Ideas to practice at home (activities for responding to reading) – Y3

Ideas to practice at home (activities for responding to reading) – Y4

Ideas to practice at home (activities for responding to reading) – Y5

Ideas to practice at home (activities for responding to reading) – Y6

Alan Peat sentences

Reading tips for parents when at home with your child