Leadership of Reading at Westwood Primary School.

Accountable: Mrs Lauraine Barnes and Mrs Kelly Hough

Responsible: Miss Beth Jones, Mr Andrew Rough, Mrs Danielle Gillings

Our Reading Intent

As readers we:

• Have a love of reading
• Know the skills needed to be a competent reader
• Are exposed to a range of texts in order to not only reflect the pupils' lives but to also open windows to a range of diverse literary experiences 
• Understand fluency, including expression, volume, smoothness and pace 
• Read aloud and listen to texts being read aloud daily 
• Look for reading opportunities everywhere, not just in books
• Are explicit about the reason for reading
• Talk about and ask questions about their reading
• Learn and discuss new vocabulary 
• Listen to recommendations and recommend books to our peers 

Our Five Pillars of Reading

Our Five Pillars of Reading embody the integral elements of our reading principles at Westwood.  The strand along the top is our DERIC strand... Decode, Explain, Retrieve, Interpret and Choice. Our Reading curriculum is built around these key elements which are developed and explored in our Reading lessons. 

At Westwood, the expectation is that all children in the school will read at home to an adult daily. A child’s reading development benefits greatly when they read and answer questions about their book every day. It is just as important that the children understand what they are reading, as well as being able to read the words, so please ask your children questions as they read to you (examples of questions for KS1 and KS2 can be found in the leaflet attached below)

Please take time to sign your child’s reading diary every time they have read at home - they will receive a cube to place in their class' reading tube for every day they have read (including weekends and holidays). Each time a class fills their tube, they can earn a whole-class treat!

Finally, we want to encourage a love of reading, and encourage children to read other types of books, alongside the school books that are sent home. We therefore have implemented reading challenges every term for children to complete.

How do we teach Reading at Westwood?

We use all of the following to teach reading:

• Phonics Teaching (Essential Letters and Sounds)
• Exploring etymology and morphology of words 
• Daily group reading sessions in KS1
• Daily whole class reading sessions to model and focus on decoding, fluency and comprehension (small groups may be used during this time) in KS2
• Individual Reading
• Story Time (all classes every day)
• Developing fluency through paired reading, choral reading, repeated reading 

All of the teaching is underpinned by strong Assessment for Learning and ongoing daily, weekly, monthly half termly tracking and Gaps analysis.