I would like to introduce myself as Miss Hayes – reading leader across the academy. Within my role, I oversee reading within English lessons and also our strategies and approaches to embedding skills and knowledge from Nursery all the way to Year 6. I am passionate about developing a love for reading and inspiring children to find the magic within stories. Being able to read well is a vital skill which opens up a world of learning and opportunities and is crucial to future success. I am dedicated to ensuring that our children have the best possible start when learning to read and nurturing a life-long love of reading.

Within my role across the academy, I ensure that every member of staff is well equipped to support pupils in developing their reading skills. We provide training and support to staff as necessary to secure the highest quality teaching. I also ensure that we have a rigorous and sequential approach to the English curriculum so that pupil’s fluency, confidence and enjoyment in reading is evident across all year groups. I work closely with staff to ensure that the texts we focus on are the most appropriate for our pupils. We aim to inspire and challenge our pupils by exposing them to a breadth of books and literature which include fiction, non-fiction and poetry. I also work to ensure that reading itself is prioritised to allow pupils to access the full curriculum on offer at our academy. We dedicate substantial amounts of time to both developing reading as a core skill and also reading for pleasure and enjoying stories.

English is at the heart of everything we do here at Eaton Park. Our curriculum is designed to be ambitious and meet the needs of all pupils through tailored scaffolding approaches. Taking the objectives from the National Curriculum, we deliver a sequence of sessions for English which marry reading and writing together. Starting with ‘book talk’, the children are taught how to predict, retrieve, infer, understand language, summarise and give justifications for their answers. This approach enables the children to gain lots of reading skills while becoming familiar with authorial style which leads into the teaching of writing. The writing process begins with ‘immersion’ where the children will be exposed to what they are expected to achieve (through a WAGOLL resource), giving them knowledge of structure and organisation and writing style for the genre. Exploringand gathering vocabulary will be the next focus in the writing sequence and give the children the opportunity to get to grips with language used in the WAGOLL and use different ways to collect their own for their own piece. A key grammar skill for the genre of writing will then be looked at with the children and applied n their own sentences. These sentences can then become ‘Star Sentences’ that can be used in their plan and final piece. Children then have the opportunity to plan their final piece in a way that is appropriate to the task before writing their final piece. As stated in the National Curriculum, we prioritise drafting and editing and consistently include this within the final steps of our sequence of sessions. We ask the children to look at improving a small cross-section of their writing with a focus on quality. In addition, we use elements of ‘Talk for Writing’ as part of our English curriculum – we put an immense value on linking spoken language and listening to writing.

Demonstrating that reading is a priority across the academy, high quality texts have been carefully selected to ensure engagement of all pupils. Where applicable, these texts are linked directly to the foundation subjects. Using texts which link to our topics ensures our children are fully immersed in their topic and this in turn moves children towards a deep level of understanding where they use and apply skills and knowledge in different areas. We carefully choose texts throughout the course of the year which cover a range of genres: our long term and medium term planning and guided reading journeys ensure that every genre is covered, covering classic fiction, historical fiction and science fiction to name a few, poetry and many non-fiction text types. As an academy, we also place high value on picture books and the opportunities they bring right through to Year 6.

As an academy, we follow the Little Wandle phonics scheme, which allows our children to have quality, daily sessions with a trained member of staff. This scheme follows the children right from nursery all the way up to Year 2 (and beyond for any children who still need to access the programme) where they will be given all of the tools they need to become a fluent reader. Half termly assessments are completed to give staff the most up-to-date data for their children’s phonic knowledge. Staff with use their professional judgement to assess every 3 weeks for children who need it. In addition, we have access to a whole school reading programme called Bug Club which is a powerful guided and independent scheme that supports reading. It combines a library of stunning books with an incredible online reading world that help to develop confident young readers. Every child has their own log in details to access Bug Club at any time. This programme is used throughout the academy, from Foundation Stage through to Year 6 and forms part of the delivery of reading across the academy and guided reading sessions, as well as supporting home reading – teachers allocate books for children to read into virtual reading bags.

The academy has its own assessment tool. This consists of skills and objectives for each year band that a child is working on which enables them to achieve age-related expectation. A child starting a new academic year will aim to follow the following path: emerging, securing and then to deepening within their year band. It is a 9 point assessment tool – following a 3 point path for each section. We record our assessment information here; this then informs our planning.

Children are constantly being assessed throughout English sessions to measure achievements and create next steps. This informs planning so that children’s progress is maximised. Teachers assess children’s work daily through intervention marking and instant verbal feedback and then marking books after the lesson. Aspects of writing are analysed and feedback provided in terms of praise and next steps on a daily basis. In terms of reading, children are assessed via questioning that is related to the assessment focus and verbal feedback is given. Reading progress is evidenced in the children’s guided reading folders and in their English books.

In addition to this, children are assessed half-termly in a number of ways via progress tests for reading, and also teachers look in depth at the independent writing produced in their books.

Statutory Assessments:

In addition to these in-school assessments, there are statutory assessment that take place. In Year 1, children take part in the Phonics screening in the summer term. Children who did not pass the test in Y1 retake the test at the same time of year in Y2. In Year 2 and Year 6 the children take a formal reading and SPaG assessment as part of SATs. Writing is moderated by members of the Senior Leadership Team for Year 2 and Year 6 during the summer term, with LA moderation taking place on average every 4 years.

Library

Children have opportunities to visit the school Library on a weekly basis. Children are encouraged to read for pleasure at home and at school. We have class librarians from Y1-6 who meet with leaders across the year. Furthermore, Eaton Park collaborates with the local library and invites them in to speak to both children and parents as well as our trips included within the Character Development programme. The sessions begin as early as Nursery where reading for enjoyment is promoted through the use of the library and the many events that it runs. An initiative that is welcomed by children from the EYFS is the ‘Little Library Van’ that pays the children an annual visit to encourage positive reading habits; and again parents are invited to share this experience also. As an academy, we are always involved in the ‘Summer Reading Challenge’ – library staff come into school to encourage children to read over the summer, and we celebrate this at the start of the new academic year. At different points throughout the year, we are invited to attend a variety of workshops which are both reading and writing based; an example being a fantasy writing workshop led by an author.

Home Reading and the Bookworm:

Home reading
It is the belief of every member of staff at the academy that reading progress and attainment is supported heavily by reading at home. Because of this belief, we set ambitious reading expectations at home as well as in school. High on our agenda is also developing readers that read for pleasure and possess a passion for reading. It is the expectation, as part of our homework policy, that the children read at least three times per week (this includes the use of Bug Club online). Reading diaries are in important part of the school day – teaching staff (with the help of class librarians) regularly check consistency of reading at home and liaise with parents/carers as necessary through these.
Home reading books in Reception and Y1 are phonic based and the books are closely matched to the children’s ongoing phonics ability. The children will practice and apply at home the sounds that are taught in school.

Thanks to the class libraries, the children now choose a book for pleasure to take home alongside their school reading book to encourage reading for pleasure.

Book Worm
Book worm is an aspirational challenge that we set the children involving home reading. To promote consistent, positive attitudes towards reading for pleasure and to help children develop the habit of reading widely and often, we encourage our children to read 5 times per week (3 is set as the minimum). The children who read 5 times per week consistently over a half term all receive a prize. All children are then entered into a prize draw which is drawn by staff for each class – winners get to receive a golden coin to spend at the vending machine where they choose their own book to take home and keep!

Enrichment:

As well as our library links, the children have many other things on offer to them at our academy. After school, we have afterschool clubs (Book Club and Sensory Storytelling as examples) which provide our children with further stimulating and purposeful experiences across the English curriculum. Over the course of the academic year, we invite parents/carers into school for workshops based on phonics, Bug Club and how to help your child with reading at home. These are always well received by our families. Every year, each year band visits the theatre, and we also plan for companies to come into school and perform particular productions which link to the children’s learning in foundation subjects.

Handwriting

The children’s journey to mastering handwriting begins in the Nursery. In the nursery class, we develop the children fine motor skills and muscle control through a variety of activities such as disco dough, using scissors, and manipulating small objects. We also teach the children to hold a pencil correctly.

The school follows a handwriting program called, Penpals. This is a complete handwriting scheme that ensures progression from early development of gross and fine motor skills to confident letter formation and accomplished joins.

The children are initially taught to form the letters correctly, and then in Year 2 we introduce joins. These joins are then practised and built upon as the child moves though the school. All children in EYFS and KS1 write into books or onto resources with handwriting lines before they are gradually taken away towards the end of Year 2 ready for KS2. Any children who still require support with their handwriting will continue with the handwriting lines, and staff will use their professional judgement to decide when these are to be removed. Staff will use the Penpals app to show the children before modelling letters, words and phrases that include the focus of the session onto handwriting flipchart paper. Staff intervention mark handwriting and model for children who need it – this might include tracing over a join staff have modelled or watching how the staff join from one letter to another.

Children in Y5 and Y6 have the opportunity to achieve their pen license when they have shown consistently beautiful handwriting across the curriculum.