Reading
Early Reading Leads - Ms Mattison, Ms Swift, Ms Corrigan
Our Early Reading and Phonics team is made up of Ms Swift (Year 1), Ms Mattison (Reception) & Ms Corrigan (Year 2). Together, we lead Phonics and Early Reading across HIllbrook, supporting our youngest learners as they begin their journey to becoming confident, enthusiastic readers. At Hillbrook, we are passionate about ensuring every child develops the skills and confidence to become a fluent, joyful reader. We believe that reading opens the door to every area of learning and helps children make sense of the world around them. Through Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised phonics programme and a rich reading culture, we aim to nurture curiosity, imagination and a lifelong love of books. Together, we support staff across the school to deliver consistent, effective Early Reading and Phonics teaching. Most importantly, we love seeing our pupils' pride and excitement as they grow into independent readers who can't wait to turn the next page.
How is reading taught?
Early Reading
Throughout the Foundation Stage and Key Stage One we follow Little Wandle Letters & Sounds Revised programme which uses a rigorous system of synthetic phonics to teach the technical aspects of using letter/sound knowledge to read and write words. We use decodable books, both at home and school, that are matched to the Little Wandle progression for children to practice their word reading.
In addition to daily phonics lessons, children also have three small group reading practice sessions each week where they are supported to read decodable books that are matched to their phonic stage. These sessions also develop children’s fluency, prosody (expression) and comprehension.
Wider opportunities are given for children to apply their phonic knowledge throughout the day in speaking, reading and writing, in a language-rich curriculum.
Phonics and Early Reading Policy
Comprehension
Across the school, we use a talk-based approach using Reading Conversations to develop pupil’s reading comprehension. Drawing from educational and psychological research, this approach focuses on pupil dialogue whereby the teacher acts as a facilitator, modelling language and supporting and encouraging the children to share and discuss their understanding and opinions of texts more independently. A carefully selected lead text is used as the basis for reading conversations.
Specific reading strategies are actively and consciously taught to support comprehension: Questioning, Clarifying, Summarising, Predicting, Visualising, Connecting. To promote active engagement with a text, pupils are also taught and encouraged to ‘think aloud’ as they’re reading.
We believe that not only do reading conversations increase depth of understanding leading to improved comprehension and enjoyment of a text but they also develop key social skills, encourage children to respect differences of opinion and values collaboration as children work together to bring more meaning to a text.
