Reading
At Kettleshulme St James we make reading a priority as it is the foundation of everything we do.
'Reading for Pleasure' is always one of our top priorities. Our library is a focal point in our school and pupils use it on a daily basis. We understand the importance of developing good reading habits at an early age, which is why we have put a lot of energy into making our library feel like a very special place to be. From the sofas and bean bags to the calming mural, from the guinea pigs to cuddle whilst sharing a book to the wide selection of carefully organised texts for pupils to loan. We have brought the concept of a 'Public Library' to our pupils as we appreciate that, due to our rural location, visiting the library is not that easy for all of our children. We listen carefully to pupils when they tell us what they would like to have in the library and what is missing. We reorder new copies when popular books are not available and we rotate the library stock regularly to keep it new and exciting.
We work especially hard to foster a love of reading in all of our pupils. We are creative in our thinking around removing barriers for those children who find reading a challenge and we work conscienciously to ensure that our library is well stocked, and regularly updated, featuring books for all types of readers.
Each term we take a selection of pupils on a 'Book Shop Trip' and spend an allocated budget from the PTFA on new books. Each time we go we take a different group of pupils - they might be avid readers, reluctant readers, readers who prefer non-fiction, librarians and so on. Thge children select a large range of books which they then take upstairs to ponder whilst indulging in a hot chocolate and cookie. They then apply their Maths skills to keep within their allocated budget as they work democratically to select the books which they will be purchasing. Back at school, the children who have been on the visit, present the books in assembly and explain why they made their choices.
Our School Librarians are very active within school and they meet with our Chair of Governors (who is also passionate about reading) on a regular basis. The Librarians nominate a 'Book of the Week' for each class (which is shared with all pupils during our Friday Assembly) and they regularly share new content, give messages about the library and launch competitions. There is a lot of dialogue in our school about books and there is a sense of excitement when discussing them - exactly as there should be.
All children have the opportunity to read in class every single day and they are also read to (purely for enjoyment), every single day. Story time is a very important part of our school day.
We encourage children to read at home every night and to record their receading in their Reading Record. If they read 5 times or more in a week then they receive a raffle ticket from their teacher. If they receive enough raffle tickets, at the end of each half term they are rewarded with extra playtime. Our Librarians oversee the running of the Reading Reward. This incentive has been transformational, especially in Key Stage 2, where we had previoulsy noticed that reading habits had dipped. We understand that we are using an incentive to drive this, but we believe that this they supports the children to change their habits and adopt said new habits on a long term basis.
We also have our Key Stage 2 Reading Challenge which is extremely popular with our older children. Staff and pupils have created a list of 20 books, which range from poetry to non-fiction, from graphic novels to classics. When children have read 10 of these books, and had them signed off by the 'book expert', they receive a £5.00 Amazon voucher! Some of our children have even read all 20 books and therefore received two Amazon vouchers! One of these pupils is now a 'book expert' themselves!
Due to the popularity of this challenge (and upon request from our School Council), we are in the process of launching our Key Stage 1 Reading Challenge. We have already agreed on, and designed, the reward to accompany this.
When thinking about our Reading Curriculum, in Key Stage 1 we use a mixture of resources to develop children's comprehension skills. These range from Read Write Inc resources to Ninja Comprehension. The rationale behind our reading curriculum is that Read Write Inc. (RWI) texts are familiar to the pupils, which alleviates the challenge of decoding tricky words. This familiarity allows children to focus on enhancing their comprehension skills. The Ninja Comprehensions allow pupils to read texts that are high-quality and rich in vocabulary. They cover a wide variety of genres including fables, sci-fi, contemporary stories, adventure, traditional tales and poetry.
In Year 1, pupils start the week with a reading comprehension task centred around a previously learned sound, such as ‘ow’, exemplified by the text 'Blow the Snow'. In the subsequent reading lessons, Year 1 students engage with a book from a band below their current RWI group, which mitigates the pressure associated with encountering unfamiliar texts and sounds. Each week, pupils will sequence the story using pictures or short sentences, followed by answering a variety of comprehension questions.
Year 2 pupils undertake two different types of reading comprehension activities. The first involves RWI comprehensions, where they read and respond to tasks regarding a book from a band below their current RWI level. These activities include recognising tricky set 3 RWI sounds and responding to relevant questions. The second activity involves reading a Ninja Comprehension text, allowing Year 2 pupils access to a diverse range of longer and more challenging texts, including fiction, non-fiction, and poetry. This dual approach ensures a comprehensive development of reading skills and comprehension.
In Key Stage 1, skills include:
- draw on knowledge of vocabulary to understand texts
- identify / explain key aspects of fiction and non-fiction texts, such as characters, events, titles and information
- identify and explain the sequence of events in texts
- make inferences from the text
- predict what might happen on the basis of what has been read so far
In Key Stage 2 we use Fred’s Teaching to develop children’s comprehension skills. The primary aim of Fred’s Teaching is to teach reading comprehension skills and strategies explicitly using a wide range of high quality texts, including books, magazines, newspaper articles and more.
In Key Stage 2, skills include:
- give / explain the meaning of words in context
- retrieve and record information / identify key details from fiction and non-fiction
- summarise main ideas from more than one paragraph
- make inferences from the text / explain and justify inferences with evidence from the text
- predict what might happen from details stated and implied
- identify / explain how information / narrative content is related and contributes to meaning as a whole
- identify / explain how meaning is enhanced through choice of words and phrases
- make comparisons within the text