Reading at Bushmead Primary School

At Bushmead we teach reading through 'Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised' and Accelerated Reader. Both of which have been created by subject experts, based on the latest pedagogical research and teacher feedback.

Intent Statement

At Bushmead Primary School, we believe that English and communication are key life skills. Through the English curriculum, we will help children develop the skills and knowledge that will enable them to communicate effectively and creatively through spoken and written language and equip them with the skills to become lifelong learners. We want children to enjoy and appreciate literature and its rich variety.

English is at the heart of all children’s learning. English enables children both to communicate with others effectively for a variety of purposes and to examine their own and others’ experiences, feelings and ideas, giving these order and meaning. Because English is central to children’s intellectual, emotional and social development, it has an essential role across the curriculum and helps pupils’ learning to be coherent and progressive.

Implementation

As children move through our school, they will be taught a progressive curriculum that builds on the knowledge from previous years. Children will learn about the following areas in each year group:

Early years and year 1

At Bushmead, we teach phonics systematically from nursery to year 2 for 30 minutes each day of the week through the 'Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised' Programme. Children are assessed every 6 weeks by the phonics lead, this assessment data is used to determine which children require further catch up lessons. If a child does require catch up sessions to fill gaps, they will receive 5 minutes of 1:1 intervention, three times a week, delivered by a trained member of staff. Each whole class teaching group is led and taught by a Little Wandle trained member of staff. Little Wandle has a comprehensive, pacey and progressive approach to phonics which engages children and allows them to excel in both reading and spelling. The first part of the lesson lasts for 10 minutes and is referred to as the ‘revisit and review’ part of the lesson. The second part is where we teach and practise a new digraph. This session is heavily teacher led with plenty of modelling and child interaction. The final part of the session is where children are asked to apply their learning by reading a sentence (containing only GPC's that they have already been taught) and practising the spelling of 3 words, containing the phoneme taught in that session. 

Year 2

At the end of year 1, children's phonic skills and fluency are assessed using the 'Fluency Assessment'. The fluency assessments will tell the teacher the rate each child reads at (words per minute) and their accuracy. If children read quickly but are inaccurate, then they will not be able to read with comprehension. Children who can read the final fluency assessment at 60–70+ words per minute are ready to exit the Little Wandle programme, and do not need to read any more of the fully decodable books. They have sufficient fluency and secure phonic knowledge to tackle any book at age-related expectations. Children then graduate to the 'No Nonsense Spelling' programme. This is a comprehensive and flexible spelling programme that has been written in conjunction with the National Curriculum, for children from year 2 to year 6. For reading, they will advance to 'Accelerated Reader' (there is more information on this in the next paragraph). Children that are not ready to exit the Little Wandle programme, will have carefully tailored catch up sessions based around consolidating any gaps they have in their phonic knowledge. 

Year 3 - 6

Children in years 3 - 6 will take part in our 'Accelerated Reader' programme. Now that children are showing fluency in their reading, they are able to make their own choices of reading books from our extensive school library. Students can read in class, at home, or out and about in the community. Once they finish a book, students take a short quiz on what they’ve read. Each quiz is written to ensure students have read the entire book. Teacher's then use data and information from the quizzes to ensure that children are reading books at a level that is right for them. This information is also used to help inform planning and to consolidate any gaps children may have in their reading. 

Spelling is taught using the 'No Nonsense Spelling' programme (more information can be found in the previous paragraph)