Reading

Curriculum Leader: Katie Mabey

Miss Mabey is our English Leader and is responsible for this curriculum area. Miss Mabey is also responsible for leading our systematic synthetic phonics programme (SSP) which in our setting is 'Monster Phonics'. We are fortunate that Miss Mabey is also employed by 'Monster Phonics' as an ambassador and it is her role to champion the scheme and promote excellence in phonics teaching and learning. In both her roles, this means Miss Mabey ensures that we teach an ambitious curriculum, supporting our teachers to implement our curriculum through high-quality lessons and checking that lessons are helping children to know more, remember more and do more. 

At Chiltern Primary School, we are passionate about our children developing a life-long love of reading. We hope they feel inspired by reading teachers who are also teachers that read. We recognise that confidence and competence in reading can often be the gateway to children unlocking their potential in other curriculum areas so it is paramount they are successful in their early reading development, reading with automaticity and fluency as soon as possible. 

This begins with our systematic synthetic phonics programme in EYFS & KS1. In our setting our SSP is Monster Phonics. By the time they reach year 2, we hope they will have cracked the complex 'code' that is the English language and can use this to segment and blend most unfamiliar words. We recognise that some children will still need to embed their phonics knowledge therefore we flexibly group our children across the whole EYFS & KS1 provision.

As soon as the children have mastered the skill of word recognition and language comprehension, we model to the children how they are entwined resulting in the children starting to read more independently for meaning and for pleasure.

What do reading lessons look like? 

Year R and Year 1

• Daily 30-minute phonics lessons 
• Reading practice sessions in smaller, teacher-led groups. The children in the group will all read the same book and it will be closely matched to their reading level. The first session focuses on decoding, the second on fluency and the third on comprehension (reading for meaning). 
• Reading one-to-one with a member of staff to monitor personal progress and attainment with Reading

Year 2

• Daily 30-minute phonics lessons
• Any children who have not passed the phonics screening receive catch-up support through the personalised provision and high-quality inclusive teaching
• Formalisation of comprehension teaching and learning including skills of reading such as selecting and retrieving
• Reading one-to-one with a member of staff to monitor personal progress and attainment with Reading

Year 3, 4, 5 and 6

• High-quality Reading and Writing lessons following a key text driver 
• Formalised teaching of reading skills for comprehension
• Adapted teaching and scaffolding of children that still need to secure their Phonics teaching 
• Targeted intervention for Reading skills 
• Precision Teaching intervention to support specific children including those that are the lowest attaining 
• Use of technology to scaffold reading skills through the use of the 'Nessy' reading programme for children who are at risk or who have a specific learning difficulty
• Reading one-to-one with a member of staff to monitor personal progress and attainment with Reading

We are also very fortunate at Chiltern Primary School to have a 'Speech and Langauge Support Assistant' who supports children across the school with their speech and language development. This can take the form of a tailored, personalised programme, provision against EHCP targets or children that need support to catch up in their learning. 

The children immensely enjoy the whole class text and it makes for some excellent whole-class discussions, which often inspire the writing in our English curriculum. It is, however, important they can apply their reading skills completely independently so regular opportunities to read and respond to an unfamiliar or unseen text are built into the reading diet available to the children.