Reading at Granton Primary School
At Granton, we believe that the ability to read is fundamental to pupils’ development as independent learners, during their time at school and beyond. Success in reading has a direct effect upon progress in all areas of the curriculum; therefore, reading is given a high priority at our school.
Acting on a huge dip in the proportion of pupils achieving the national expected standard in 2017, we have over last academic year designed and implemented a new reading approach called Active Reading 5. This approach is based on a whole-class teaching of reading addressing all the skills pupils need to develop to become fluent and effective readers. In addition to fluency, it addresses the development of the more sophisticated skills of reading, including inference and deduction. During these sessions, there is a high level of interaction between teachers and pupils. Children are exposed to high-quality texts and discussion in an immersive environment. Texts are carefully chosen by teachers to provide appropriate challenge that builds on pupils’ existing knowledge and understanding.
As a result, our pupils have achieved the best results in reading to date. In July 2018, pupils in all key stages have made exceptional progress and more pupils than ever achieved the national expected standards in reading. In both key stage 1 and 2, there is also a greater number of pupils who met the higher standard in reading.
How does it work?
In the Early Years Foundation Stage, Active Reading 5 takes place daily using picture books to support children’s reading comprehension skills. Children will explore a variety of fiction, non-fiction and poetry texts. The skills of Active Reading 5 are taught right from Nursery and Reception where the focus during sessions is Speaking, Understanding and Listening. These are the key components to developing outstanding communication and language skills.
In Key Stage 1 and 2, children will be exposed to fiction, non-fiction and poetry texts and individual pupils will be called upon to read aloud to the class, whilst teachers will model effective reading also. This is to ensure children maintain fluency whilst given opportunities to develop their understanding of texts. Response activities include: clarifying unknown words and phrases; inferring and deducting to form an opinion; predicting; explaining authors’ intent; retrieving information; summarising and answering comprehension questions.
Reading and exploring the same text as a whole class has generated a lot of enthusiasm from the children so far, who thoroughly enjoy these sessions throughout the school.
Reading Records
Implementation of the Whole Class Reading approach means that you will see less comments from teachers in children’s Reading Records. They will, however, continue to be checked frequently to help us see what children are reading at home. There are to be used for you to communicate with us if you spot your child having difficulties or if you want to celebrate successes. For example, your child may have completed their first chapter book or have started reading independently at home without prompting from you. Due to less 1:1 reading and small group reading, there will be less comments in records from teachers. Please do not think that because there is not a comment, your child is not reading at school. Every child reads daily at school. For pupils in Years 3-6, we expect them to write in their diary a short reflection on what they read at home.
Additional Support
Teachers and additional adults will continue to hear children read throughout the week but are not anymore expected to write detailed reports in pupils’ school diaries. This means that teachers will have more time dedicated to direct teaching of reading skills.