Reading

“I do believe something very magical can happen when you read a good book!” J.K. Rowling – author of the Harry Potter series.

Phonics

What is Sounds~Write?

At Cockton Hill Junior School, we teach phonics using a linguistic phonics programme called Sounds~Write – a proven systematic synthetic phonics programme validated by the Department for Education, enabling smooth progression from the work at Cockton Hill Infants’ School. It is based on the science of reading and provides a structured, cumulative, and code-oriented approach to teaching reading and spelling. It starts with what children learn naturally, the sounds of their own language, and teaches them to represent those sounds in writing. Sounds~Write is a complete phonics curriculum that teaches the skills, concepts, and code knowledge necessary for children to read and spell.

Children are taught four key concepts:

Letters are symbols that represent sounds
Sounds can be spelled using 1, 2, 3 or 4 letters (dog, street, night, dough)
The same sound can be spelled in different ways (rain, break, stay, gate)
The same spelling can represent different sounds (head, seat, break)

Children are taught to master three key skills:

Segmenting - the ability to pull apart the individual sounds in words
Blending - the ability to push sounds together to build words
Phoneme manipulation - the ability to insert sounds into and delete sounds out of words. This skill is necessary to test out alternatives for spellings that represent more than one sound.

When is Sounds~Write taught?

Children in Year 3 have a 30-minute Sounds~Write session every day. Children in Years 4, 5 and 6 have discrete Sounds-Write sessions as required for the cohort, as well as planned and incidental teaching of reading and spelling across the curriculum using the Sounds-Write approach.

Some children require more time and practice when learning to read and spell, and they are supported through ‘keep-up’ and ‘catch-up’ intervention sessions in addition to the whole class phonics sessions.

What books are used?

Children who are beginning to learn to read use phonically-controlled books that we call ‘decodable readers’. These books are carefully written to focus on the code the children have been taught in phonics lessons so far. Decodable readers allow the children to practise their developing skills and they will be sent home to give even more opportunities for practice. Parents/carers are asked to support their children by hearing them read aloud at least three times a week.

At Cockton Hill Junior School, we use decodable readers that match the scope and sequence of the Sounds-Write programme.

Once children have developed their skills and their code knowledge, they begin to move away from decodable readers and read a wider range of books.

We encourage all of our parents/carers to access the free Sounds-Write online course so that they are well-informed about how best to support their children with reading and spelling at home.

If you have any questions about phonics, please contact the school office.

Sounds~Write Parent/Carer Guidance

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Sounds~Write Case Study

Take a look at our case study that features on the Sounds~Write website.

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Reading and Comprehension

‘Pupils should be taught to read fluently, understand extended prose (both fiction and non-fiction) and be encouraged to read for pleasure. Schools should do everything to promote wider reading. They should provide library facilities and set ambitious expectations for reading at home.

(2014 National Curriculum Programme of Study)

Reading is a very important life skill as well as being a source of pleasure, enjoyment and enrichment. At Cockton Hill Junior School we aim to equip children with skills that will enable them to access the curriculum and foster a love of reading.

We encourage a love of reading from the minute our pupils start our school. Across school, children enjoy adult-led reading at the end of every day and they experience a range of texts across reading lessons and through class novels. We hold regular visits to our local library and host ‘Book Tasting Reading Cafés’ for parents/carers. Our aim is to immerse our pupils in reading and to develop that real excitement about books. We have created some fabulous spaces within school to look at books both indoors and outdoors.

Once the crucial skills of word recognition are secured through phonics teaching children are encouraged to read fluently and automatically allowing them to concentrate on the meaning of the text. This balance between word recognition and language comprehension shifts as children acquire secure and automatic decoding skills and progress from ‘learning to read’ to ‘reading to learn’ for purpose and pleasure. We actively encourage our children to become enthusiastic and independent readers by providing them initially with a range of decodable books, matched to their phonic ability and then they progress onto a wide variety of quality graded ‘read reads’.

Fluency and Comprehension

Good comprehension draws from linguistic knowledge and an understanding of the world. Comprehension skills develop through children’s experience of high quality discussion with the teacher, as well as from reading and discussing a range of stories, poems and non-fiction texts. All children must be encouraged to develop their knowledge of themselves and the world in which they live, to establish an appreciation and love of reading and to gain knowledge across the curriculum.

Through our reading lessons, children use a range of quality texts to develop their reading fluency and comprehension skills. Reading texts extend, consolidate and review knowledge and learning from our foundation curriculum. Vocabulary development is a key focus of reading lessons to ensure children develop a breadth of vocabulary to access texts with greater independence. Children's reading fluency is developed by a structure where the teacher models reading, children 'echo read' and then independently apply this to their individual reading. Reading domains are explicitly taught through a modelled, guided, independent structure to teaching.

Class novels are read at the end of the school day by the class teacher. This is an opportunity for children to develop their love of reading as well as further enhance comprehension skills through questioning, discussion and the identification and extension of vocabulary.

Reading for Pleasure

At Cockton Hill Junior School, we encourage a reading for pleasure ethos through our reading curriculum, class story time, outdoor reading, reading challenges, author visits and reading events, such as World Book Day. Children have independent access to a wide variety of high-quality texts in their classrooms and in our school libraries. It is these enriching opportunities, and our ethos where reading is prioritised and valued, that we believe give our children the necessary skills to become thoughtful and confident readers for life.

Reading/Writing Overviews

Year 3

Year 4

Year 5

Year 6

Homework Expectations

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Parent/Carer Guidance

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Book Tasting Reading Cafés

Each class enjoys exploring a variety of books, sampling different genres and authors, and discovering new favourites. Parents and carers are warmly invited to join the annual sessions, sharing stories and a love of reading alongside the children. It was wonderful to see everyone engaged in lively book chat and celebrating the joy of reading together!

Library Visits

Children have regular opportunities to visit our local library, Woodhouse Close. They enjoy choosing books of interest to them and experiencing borrowing and taking care of the books.

World Book Day

We had a lovely day in school celebrating World Book Day and all things reading. All activities for the day were decided by our Education Department. Children came to school in a choice of their favourite book character, pyjamas or non-uniform. Everyone visited Woodhouse Close Library to choose a book and each year group focused on a different author chosen by their representatives from the Education Department:

Year 3 - Adam Bushnell

Year 4 - SF Said

Year 5 - Radiya Hafiza

Year 6 - Christopher Edge

Take a look at us enjoying reading in action!