Reading Curriculum: How do we teach reading at Holwell?

Reading at Holwell 

Our core aims are to provide a phonics and early reading curriculum which will ensure that all children are skilled readers and who develop a comprehensive understanding of words, language and texts and develop a love of reading

We believe that these are the three skills that we would like to teach our pupils help them to succeed as life-long learners and successful members of the community. The development of pupils as learners of the future is at the heart of what we are trying to achieve at Holwell School. We want our children to be competent readers who are confident, knowledgeable, skilful and resilient. At Holwell, the children learn to read through two stages; Stage 1: Learning to Read and Stage 2: Reading to Learn.

Stage 1: Learning to Read

Stage 1 : Learning To Read – Phonics

Phonics at Holwell is implemented through the teaching of daily, discreet Phonics sessions. This is the prime approach to reading for all children. We follow the ‘Little Wandle- Letters and Sounds Revised’ programme which is a complete systematic synthetic phonics programme (SSP) developed for schools.  

Stage 1: Learning to Read – Reading Lessons

At Holwell, all children enjoy a high-quality lesson of reading every day. Our approach to the teaching of reading is designed following The Simple View of Reading (Gough and Turner, 1986). The Simple View of Reading is a formula demonstrating the widely accepted view that reading has two basic components: word recognition (decoding) and language comprehension. Reading sessions will focus on children becoming fluent readers where their decoding skills will be extended and they will be taught to develop pace, accuracy and expression through listening to adults read, echo reading, choral reading, paired reading and independent reading. Children will be grouped dependent on their reading band which would have been assigned according to Little Wandle Phonics assessments carried out each half term. Children will be accurately matched to their appropriate reading band. The books/text they will be exposed to within the reading lessons will be matched to their reading band.

A typical sequence of lessons will last a week and will consist of the following;

1.     Teach: Teach phonic sounds contained within the text.

2.     Common Exception Words: Reading common exception words contained within the text.

3.     Read: Read the text together – just a few pages (scanned pages on the screen and the text typed out so that it can be easily read by all children).

4.     Comprehension: Answer questions based on the comprehension skills relevant for that level text.

5.     Independent task: On the final day of the book, staff will plan a written activity for the children to complete independently.

Stage 1: Learning to Read - Reading Books

Children are provided with a Harper Collins Big Cat books which link to the Little Wandle phonics programme and which are matched according to their phonic ability.

Stage 2: Reading to Learn

Stage 2: Reading to Learn – Reading Lessons

Once children have completed the Little Wandle Phonics scheme (End of Year 1) and are secure in the phonics code, children will progress to Stage 2:Reading to Learn. Children will be taught using a ‘Terrific Text’ to develop children's reading comprehension skills and to develop fluency in reading through a whole class teaching approach. At this point, texts become longer and less familiar, reading becomes more fluent and the pace of reading is quickened. 

Stage 2: Reading to Learn - Reading books

When children reach Lime level, they are able to choose their own books from the allocated area for their year group.  Once chosen, they need to show an adult who will hear them read a short excerpt to ensure it is an appropriate text. The fluency and comprehension will be checked. The new title will then be written in the  child’s reading record and signed by the adult to acknowledge it is suitable.

More information about how we teach reading can be found in our policy: Reading and Phonics Policy 20242025.