Accelerated Reader
Please remember to log on to the Accelerated Reader site at home and quiz on the books that you have read https://ukhosted50.renlearn.co.uk/6703626/default.aspx
As an adult, you can monitor the progress your child makes and find out how they have been getting on with the quizzes by logging in to home connect. This can be found here –
https://ukhosted43.renlearn.co.uk/6703626/homeconnect/
Log in as normal, but this time you will be able to view a range of reports to let you know how your child is getting on.
The Rationale Behind Cogenhoe’s Reading Curriculum
Reading Intention:
At Cogenhoe Primary School reading for pleasure and cultivating the love of reading is actively encouraged throughout the school. Great emphasis is placed on developing pupil’s skills in reading from Reception, so that they are able to explore and discuss challenging texts confidently through our daily “Book Talk” session. Both shared, modelled and independent reading has a specific focus and is a fundamental part of a child’s reading journey. Teacher’s use a range of rich texts, so that pupils use of vocabulary and enjoyment of reading is heightened. The breadth of our curriculum ensures that pupils have access to a wide range of poetry, fiction and non-fiction.
We actively promote and celebrate our love of reading through our vibrant environment, reading for pleasure areas, focussed whole school assemblies and celebration days. In addition to this, our parent community are actively involved and regularly attend our workshops, open mornings and demonstration lessons.
Reading Implementation:
How do we teach reading?
There are two strands to teaching reading: word recognition (phonics) and language comprehension (understanding the words that they read).
How do we teach word recognition? Phonics?
At Cogenhoe Primary, we teach phonics using the linguistic phonics programme Essential Letters and Sounds,it is effective in teaching pupils to read, spell and write because it starts from what all children know from a very early age – the sounds of their own language. Then, using a very systematic approach, it teaches them how these sounds are coded within our writing system.
Across the Foundation stage and KS1, children have a daily phonics lesson following the programme. The structure and simplicity of lessons make it a programme accessible to all learners and helps them to make excellent progress with their reading and spelling. The lessons are carefully structured and consistently applied across the Foundation Stage and Key Stage One.
The children are taught to decode and encode through explicit teaching and practice of these skills and concepts:
Skills
- Blending
- Segmenting
- Phonic Manipulation
Concepts
- letters are symbols that represent sounds
- sounds can be spelled using 1,2 3 or 4 letters
- the same sound can be spelled in more than one way (rain, break, gate, stay)
- many spellings can represent more than one sound (head, seat, break)
Your child will start their Essential Sounds e journey as soon as they begin school with us. We are committed to unlocking the world of reading as soon as we can. They will bring home a phonetically decodable book and it is here where their reading adventure really begins. It is magical to watch how children start to realise that the letters on the page represent sounds and overtime how those sounds blend together to make words!
Phonics Screening Check
At the end of year 1 your child will sit a National phonics test (this is called the Phonics Screening Check) where they are asked to read (decode) 40 words. We report their score to you at the end of the year. Usually, there is a pass mark of around 32. More information about the Phonics Screening Test can be found here.
When your child is ready and they are developing a secure grip of phonics they will be given two books – a phonetically decodable one and a longer book – often one with chapters in. We call these our ‘bridging books’ as they are the bridge onto becoming a fluent reader who can tackle any book. This also starts to help their comprehension as the stories that they begin to read are often a little more challenging.
Here is a diagram of your child’s reading journey in books that they will experience (RfP means Reading for Pleasure):
How do we teach comprehension?
At Cogenhoe Primary we use the Inference Programme as a process to teach comprehension. It is impactful because it is based on research of how children learn to read and rather than teaching discrete ‘skills,’ it develops children’s comprehension strategies in order for them to be able to independently understand a text deeply. It also also complements our writing approach (Talk for Writing) and together they strengthen the children’s learning in both areas.
The main focus of the Inference Programme, is that through talking and thinking we are able to understanding a challenging text with the aim that deep thinking becomes a habit of the mind.
Even in EYFS, we will start to discuss and talk about our books including the pictures so that we not only develop children’s phonetic skills we also start to develop their comprehension ones too.
Children are encouraged to use reading sentence stems to help structure their answers e.g.
- I think that…
- The reason I think this is because…
- In my opinion, …
- The evidence to support my opinion is…
- I like… I do not like…
- This reminds me of…
Book Talk
Book Talk’ is used as a systematic way to teach reading strategies across the whole school from year 1 to Year 6. It is underpinned by certain guiding principles, which are outlined below:
- Pupils are organised into reading attainment groups and share a set of the same books pitched at their level with the appropriate challenge.
- All pupils in the classroom will be accessing narrative, non-fiction or poetry at the same time.
- Pupils will partake in a 4 times a week 30 min ‘Book Talk’ session and once a week will intensively work with the class teacher for an inference session.
- Sessions are themed around open-ended questions to tackle the three layers of the Reading Rainbow’.
“On average, reading comprehension approaches improve learning by an additional five months’ progress.” Education Endowment Foundation.
We acknowledge the use of techniques such as graphic organisers and drawing pupils’ attention to the text structures are likely to be particularly useful when reading a range of non-fiction texts.
- A hallmark of sessions is developing reading for meaning and oral comprehension techniques.
- Book Talk is structured with three reasons to read, which are taken from the Reading Rainbow. One reason is taken from the top layer of the rainbow under FANTASTIC. The second reason is taken from the STYLISTIC layer. The third reason is taken from the ANALYTICS layer. These are introduced to pupils in chunks and it is through these generic lenses they think and discus their reading material.
- The session works best if they operate like conversations about books and ‘hands up’ is not used, so there is a natural flow of talk about what they are reading.
- During these sessions, the pleasure principle of reading is fostered and highly engaging picture books should be used in favour of phonic-based books to heighten engagement and excitement.
- ‘Book Talk’ is sharply focused on reading for meaning, listening to friends read and talking about books.
- During sessions, group members can either take turns to read, read in pairs or read to themselves. The teacher can direct this.
Early Reading
At Cogenhoe, we place significant importance on Early Reading as we know that fluent readers will learn more, because they can read and gain knowledge for themselves. Throughout this document you will read about how early reading is taught and development but if you were to visit our school you can expect to see that:
- direct, focused phonics is taught every day in Reception and key stage 1
- children read from books with the sounds they know, while they are learning to read
- teachers and teaching assistants provide extra practice through the day for the children who make the slowest progress (the lowest 20%)
- all children in Year 3 and above can read age-appropriate books
- teachers instil in children a love of literature: the best stories and poems
We work in close partnership with parents to support them in supporting us in their child’s reading journey.
Curriculum
Like with the writing curriculum, the Talk for Reading comprehension curriculum is sequenced so that it is cumulative, whereby the children’s knowledge is constantly revisited and built upon. It has also been designed so that, where appropriate, the texts chosen broaden and strengthen the knowledge of the Trust’s Wider Curriculum.
Furthermore, the texts used have been carefully selected to ensure that there is a balance of classic, modern, information and culturally diverse ones.
Enrichment – Every day is World Book Day!
Our ambition is to drown our children in a sea of wonderful, engaging and memorable reading experiences from: visiting authors and illustrators, participating in World Book Day, visits to the theatre and having the opportunity to attend book clubs, book swaps and read to a variety of children and adults across the school. For us, everyday should be World Book Day! For us at Cogenhoe, reading culture is as important as phonics and comprehension.
Remote Learning
During any remote learning we teach our reading curriculum online. Our teachers have carefully adapted their teaching strategies to ensure that your child’s learning can continue in a similar way to as it they were in class. Phonics is always taught live on a daily basis and comprehension is taught using a careful balance of live lessons and independent tasks. Please see our remote learning strategy which is on the website for more information.
SEND and Disadvantaged Children
We believe that Book Talk is inclusive and through careful scaffolding all children will be able to achieve and make the progress which they are capable of. All pupils will be appropriately supported throughout the phonics and comprehension lessons so that they can access all of the learning; consequently, ensuring that a ceiling is not placed on any child’s educational opportunities in reading.
At Cogenhoe we believe that quality first teaching should always be the priority when addressing children’s needs. However, we do employ numerous research-based interventions to support our early or developing readers because we recognise that sometimes, children need a little help on the way. Here are some of the interventions that we run:
- Switch on Reading
- Get Reading intervention programme
- Fresh Start intervention programme
- Sounds-Write intervention programme
- 1:1 readers
- PIRA as an assessment tool for diagnosing areas for development and focussed teaching
- Specific pre-learning and targeted work for the lowest 20%- through Before School and After School Interventions
- Reading Shed
Meet Joanna and Maddie our Pets as Therapy volunteers, who also come into school to listen and spend time with our readers.
How is reading assessed?
- Book Talk is assessed daily and children track their own progress through the Reading Rainbow.
- Each term in Years 1-6 your child will sit a PIRA assessment.
- All children in Kst are regularly Star Tested and you can log in and track their progress through.
- In Years 2 and 6 your child’s reading will be further assessed using national exemplification materials.
- In Year 6 your child will sit a reading SAT (Standardised Assessment Test).
- Your child will be heard read on a 1:1 basis regularly.
We want our focus to be on the teaching of reading rather than endless assessments but we will periodically take time to see how your child is doing through an assessment and if ever we need to do more assessments we will. We are always guided by your child’s needs and will adapt our teaching and approaches as necessary.
Please click the link below to view our whole school Reading and Phonics rationale:
The Rationale behind Cogenhoe’s Reading
The Phonics Rationale behind Cogenhoe
Please click the link below for more information.
http://www.renlearn.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/What-Parents-need-to-know.pdf
Please see our list of suggested texts below for your children to enjoy at home:
Suggested Reading Texts – Whole School
In Key Stage 2, we use a programme called ‘Accelerated Reader’ to continue to track and monitor our children’s progress and motivate them to continue to keep reading in order to reach the Millionaires’ Club. Parents also have access to this on-line system so that they too are able to see how their children are progressing. Please click on the video below to learn more about how the programme works:
Children’s reading abilities and levels are consistently assessed throughout Key Stage Two. To support our children who have a weakness in decoding or inferring, we use and follow a rigorous, structured reading intervention programme on an individual and group basis which ensures that rapid and sustained progress is made.
What makes Reading at Cogenhoe so special?
Throughout the school year we hold a number of “Big Book Swaps” in the school hall.
Our reading trolley is available for all members of our school community to access at any time; on the playground, before school and after school.
We take part in exciting competitions and reading challenges throughout the year, to earn house points for our team.
We celebrate “World Book Day” annually in a BIG way!
Our wonderful reading dog comes to visit us every week and loves listening to our childre read.
For our more gifted readers, we work in partnership with our feeder Secondary Schools to take part in, “The County Big Book Quiz”.
Our classroom doors are bright and colourful book covers that our children have chosen – how many can you spot?
We have “Mystery Readers” who sign up to come and share a book with a class- who will it be this week?
When our Reception children start school, they are paired with a Year 5 and Year 6 reading buddy to enjoy different reading experiences throughout the year.
Key Stage 2 children are entered into a reading raffle every half term if they have been successfull on their “Accelerated Reader quizzing”.
Throughout the year, we invite the wider community into our school to take part in Reading workshops, demonstrations and events.
Our love of reading is further established by our frequent visits from real life authors who motivate and inspire our children even further.
Children are encouraged to complete larger, meatier texts to develop their vocabularly in order to become part of our “Millionaire Club”.
If you have any further queries, please do not hesitate to speak to our reading leader, Mrs Blackwell or
our school librarian, Mrs Gillett, who is always available to meet with parents to ensure that your child is reading the correct book for their reading level and interest. You can email her directly with any Accelerated Reader queries on librarian@cogenhoeprimary.org
Reading Impact:
Every child at our school is a reader, who through exceptional experiences and opportunities are confident to select their own texts to enjoy and gain information from. Our children understand the importance of reading and consistently strive to gain high outcomes.
Key Stage Two attainment of the high standard (110+) in Reading (50%) was significantly above national and in the highest 20% of all schools in 2019.
Key Stage Two attainment of the expected standard (80%) was also significantly above national.
Key Stage One attainment of the expected standard in reading (77%) was above national and the higher standard was also above national at 27%.
Our Phonics data, for the last three years has been significantly above national and in the highest 20% of all schools.
Early Years Foundation Stage attainment of the expected standard in reading (88%) was also significantly above national and in the highest 20% of all schools in 2019.
By the time the children reach the end of our reading curriculum, they will have experienced
a rich variety of the finest literature in order to have moved from learning to read to reading
to learn. They will be able to read fluently and understand well what they read. They will able
to engage in meaningful discussions about literature and through exposure to a wide range
of Book Talk Rainbow vocabulary they will have a vast array of words at their disposal.
Reading evidence will be recorded in Book Talk grp books (KS2 only) and in T4W
books. The environments will also evidence the positive reading culture and ongoing
teaching.
Tour our school and join in with Book Talk . You will see all children in Kst 1 are challenged to read a correct phonic stage book and apply their phonic knowledge to bridging books and their Pie Corbett Reading Spine Book Talk book . All Kst 2 children are challenged to make links with their Accelerated Reader selected book, our inference learning and Book Talk discussion . Using this approach they will then discover the richness the whole curriculum has to offer.
