Reading at Five Ashes
Reading is the door to creativity, to visualisation and to greater knowledge; it is the gateway to fantastic, impossible realms, planets and worlds. Research tells us that children who read for pleasure on a daily basis develop a wider vocabulary, greater general knowledge, better understanding of other cultures and therefore become better writers. It is perhaps one of the single most important factors in a child’s development. Naturally, we therefore believe that it is every child’s right to learn to read, but we hope that our children go far beyond this to develop a true love and pleasure for reading.
At Five Ashes School we know that reading is vital to learning throughout the curriculum and in life. However we strongly believe that reading must also be an enjoyable experience for all children.
Our aim is to teach children to read decoding accurately, recognising familiar words, using their grammatical knowledge, their knowledge of the world and the story, through the use of decodable and levelled books. We do this through discrete Phonics sessions, one-to-one reading with teachers, TA’s and volunteers, Guided Reading groups and working together on texts as a class. Children have the opportunity to experience a wide range of whole texts and extracts from a range of fiction, non-fiction and poetry genres.
Alongside this, we aim to develop the children’s comprehension skills through discussion and questioning, enabling them to elaborate their understanding. All of the children participate in Guided Comprehension groups during which they are given the opportunity to investigate, explore and delve into texts, videos and pictures. They are encouraged to join in discussions and answer questions, developing their ability to comprehend literally but also improving their inference skills.
Most importantly children are read to for pleasure using a rich and varied range of picture books and novels. Staff are reading roles models who demonstrate and encourage a love for reading. The children have access to a wide variety of reading materials through the school library, visiting authors, book fairs and the carefully selected texts used in the teaching of English.
Through all of this we hope to create fluent, confident readers who appreciate and enjoy books.
Reading Books
At Five Ashes, we aim to give the children every opportunity to learn to read using decodable books, a wide range of reading scheme books and "real" books which we hope will help them to develop a love of reading.
Our decodable books "Rhino Readers" are a scheme of books which follow our Phonics Curriculum. The books are matched to the phonics level which the child is working on, including the sounds and tricky words from that Phase.(please see the Phonics & Rhino Readers tab for more information)
Our reading for pleasure books are colour banded acccording to their level of difficulty. Within each band, the children experience real breadth to support their confidence as a reader as well as to give an appropriate level of challenge. The colours bands are: Lilac, pink, red, yellow, blue, green, orange, turquoise, purple, gold, white and lime. Within the colour bands we can level more accuarately with specific numbers. e.g Pink 1-2, red 3-5, yellow 6-8, blue 9-11 etc. Once the children have achieved above Lime Level they will become a Free Reader. (This allows them to read from a selection of un levelled books.)
Children reading banded books are assessed regularly (using a rigorous assessment tool) throughout the year to ensure they are on the appropriate level and that they are making good progress in their reading as they move up through the school. It is important to be secure on a level rather than race through the bands. To move up a level it is not just the ability to read accurately but to be able to comprehend what they are reading and the ability to read fluently and with expression.
Children may also bring home a library book of their choice to promote an enjoyment and a love of Reading which they may enjoy reading by themselves or be read to them.
