Development of Reading Skills
Pupils begin the learning journey in EYFS by being taught the skills of decoding and using picture cues. During this stage, the opportunities for early comprehension are maximised. Pupils are able to retell stories using role play and whole class shared reading to support their understanding.
As pupils move into Key Stage One, the teaching of reading strategies is taught alongside a systematic approach to phonics. There is focus on fluency and the reading of high frequency and common exception words. Comprehension skills are explicitly taught through a variety of texts that include fiction, non-fiction and poetry.
During Key Stage Two, children’s comprehension skills are further developed through the teaching of new vocabulary in context. Pupils are taught the skills of retrieval, use of prior knowledge and inference through whole class reading sessions that use a wide variety of challenging and interesting texts.
Focused Reading Activities
Children have daily access to focused reading activities which may include:
- guided reading with the class teacher in EYFS and Key Stage One;
- individual reading with a teacher or teaching assistant;
- listening to a text being read aloud;
- sharing ideas about a text that has been read;
- answering questions about a range of texts;
- Whole class reading skills sessions in Key Stage Two
- A weekly ‘We Love Reading’ session where children can read texts of their choice for pleasure.
