Reading
Reading Schemes at Oakdene Primary School
At Oakdene we use materials from reading schemes in a variety of ways.
- Oxford Reading Tree—This scheme is used for early readers and books can be brought home and changed daily. We also have sets of phonically decodable Oxford Reading Tree books to use in school for guided Reading sessions.
- Lighthouse Guided Reading Sets—These fiction and non-fiction books are used for Early and Emerging readers. Their content helps with the teaching and learning of reading comprehension.
- Collins Guided Reading Sets– These non fiction and fiction books are used for Emerging, Developing and Advancing reading skills.
Oakdene Primary School believes in both the importance of developing children’s discrete word-reading skills and comprehension, and the need to foster a love of books and reading. We recognise that the two elements are intertwined; each relies on the other if children are to become life-long readers.
We recognise that being able to read well is a key life skill for all children, whatever their background we believe that every child can learn to read with the right teaching and support. We acknowledge that not all children will have had the opportunity to develop a love of reading at home, so this has to be taught and encouraged at school – just like any other area of the curriculum.
We build time for all children to read independently, read aloud and be read to during the school day. We have developed a coherent whole-school strategy for promoting reading for pleasure and invest heavily in both money and time to support reading, including buying high quality books and creating stimulating library areas. Oakdene has four exciting, well stocked library areas which are distinct from classrooms and fully involve pupils, as librarians, in running them. There are three fiction libraries and one non-fiction. Micro Librarian is in place to support the organisation, use and management of borrowing books from the libraries throughout school.
In line with research undertaken on the effective development and the impact of library areas in primary schools, we linked a school based artist in residence project to launch the opening of new library areas two years ago. Children named the fiction libraries in school – Wonderland, Narnia and Hogwarts. The artist in residence Bub Bacon who worked with children to develop 3D sculptures to bring the library areas to life and ensure a sense of ownership from the children.
Each year group has at least one Key author which they study throughout the year. The children get to know the style of the author and are exposed to a range of different titles for each author. This allows the children to read a huge repertoire and different styles of fiction before they leave Oakdene.
Key authors covered are:
Little sycamores – Rod Campbell
Nursery – Mick Inkpen and Eric Carle
Reception – Giles Andreae and Oliver Jeffers
Year 1 – Julia Donaldson
Year 2 – Anthony Browne and Jackie Morris
Year 3 – Dick King Smith
Year 4 – Anne Fine
Year 5 –Roald Dahl
Year 6 – Michael Morpurgo
Useful websites to help your child at home are:
www.bbc.co.uk/schools/magickey
www.oxfordowl.co.uk/storyteller-videos
Phonics
Phonics at Oakdene Primary School
At Oakdene all Early Years children and Key Stage 1 pupils take part in a daily phonics session.
Initially we teach reading through phonics. At Oakdene we follow the government programme ‘Letters and Sounds’ for teaching phonics and in Foundation Stage we use Jolly Phonics to support the government programme. Children are taught to split words into sounds (segment) and put sounds together to make words (blend). In Foundation Stage and and Key Stage One, children are taught phonics daily.
In Key Stage Two, children who need extra support are taught individually or in intervention groups. Our phonics lessons follow the same structure across the school, and this structure is also used to teach spelling rules from Year Two upwards. We also teach ‘tricky’ words which are not phonetically plausible within phonics lessons. Children are encouraged to use their phonetic knowledge and understanding in reading and writing. We find that the children are more confident at using a range of engaging vocabulary in their writing thanks to their phonetic skills, knowledge and understanding. Lexia is also used with specific pupils / groups of pupils from Y1 to Y6. Lexia creates a personalised learning model which develops the following skills:-phonological awareness, phonics, structural analysis, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension.
Sound Pronunciation Guide
http://www.ruthmiskin.com/en/resources/sound-pronunciation-guide/
The impact of successful learning of systematic synthetic phonics is clear to see:
Phonics Performance
In the academic year 2017- 2018, robust plans were put in place and the continued effective use of Pupil Premium enabled 91% of the cohort to meet the standard in their phonics screening check 2018. This outcome took the school ahead of the national picture by +9%. Disadvantaged pupils in 2018 were notably +10% above the national average.
“This is an excellent outcome for the school and reflects the quality of provision in place throughout Early Years and Key Stage 1” SIA report Autumn 2018.
In 2019, 86% of the cohort to meet the standard in their phonics screening check 2019. This outcome took the school ahead of the national picture by +4%. Disadvantaged pupils in 2019 were notably +3% above the national average. In 2019, 100% of Y2 pupils who resat their phonics screening check met the standard as they transferred to KS2. This outcome took the school ahead of the Local Authority picture by +45%. Disadvantaged pupils in 2019 were also notably +45% above the Local Authority average.
In 2020, the phonic screening check did not take place in June as a result of the pandemic. We assessed the pupils in March and 97% of Y1 pupils met the standard based on previous tests. The current Y2 cohort was screened in the Autumn term. We received new pupils and 91% met the standard. This is +13% above the national average.
Beyond phonics, one of the main ways we teach reading is through Guided Reading in KS1. The children have the opportunity to read a wide variety of texts in small groups and explore them in detail. This is done with adults and then as they grow in independence we encourage the children to lead the groups, with an adult present, asking each other probing questions around the text. Children are taught according to their individual needs and we have a wide variety of texts, fiction and nonfiction for this.
