Reading

At Lantern Lane, we understand the importance of reading to ensure that our pupils achieve what we intend, considering it as a vital platform for success in later life.

We want our children to read broadly and be able to discuss what they have read. We plan the reading experiences in school to ensure that the children explore a wide variety of texts – including some that they may not choose for themselves. We know that reading helps to develop children’s imagination, vocabulary and concentration. However, the benefits do not stop here. Reading allows children to relax and enjoy exploring worlds and experiences without limit.

In EYFS, the focus is to develop positive attitudes and habits in respect of reading to underpin future learning.

These are developed through daily shared story times and topic texts alongside daily phonics and, for children in Foundation 2, carefully chosen phonetic reading books (matching the children’s progress through the Twinkl Phonics scheme – see below) and books for interest.

As the children continue to develop as readers, the focus becomes:

Reading for Fluency:

We have two reading schemes at Lantern Lane:

*Bug Club (Phonics)

*Big Cat (Turquoise and above)

NB: These are currently being supplemented by the Rhino Readers that accompany the Twinkl Phonics programme.

*Phonics is taught daily in Foundation 2 and KS1. The supplementary Codebreakers intervention, also designed by Twinkl, is then used to support all children to become confident decoders. Find more information about phonics at Lantern Lane here.​

Children’s progress with phonics is tracked carefully until the point where they become confident – and fluent – decoders (this means they can use their phonics knowledge to read words). The scheme trackers are used to quickly identify any gaps in phonic knowledge that staff in school then work to quickly address with targeted intervention.

Reading interventions such as Rhino Readers (in KS2) and Switch-On (KS1 & KS2) are also used widely – and successfully – in school to help any children that are falling behind to get back on track.

Reading for Meaning:

At Lantern Lane, we promote a love of reading and develop children’s reading skills through the use of high-quality texts within whole class reading lessons (from Spring Term, Year 1).

Our book choices are based on a clear rationale that considers how a text can support other areas of the curriculum and our intent statement.

The appropriateness of vocabulary is considered and links are made between these fiction texts and related non-fiction texts or poetry, ensuring children experience a variety of genres.

These reading rationales can be viewed by following the link to your child’s year group page.

Year 1

Year 2

Year 3

Year 4

Year 5

Year 6

Within whole class reading lessons, we explicitly teach comprehension skills following the VIPERS approach (from Year 2) with children also having the opportunity to read at length (including reading chorally as a group).

Regular monitoring and assessments rapidly identify children failing to make sufficient progress in this regard. Teachers endeavour to diagnose the root cause of the issue (be this reading speed, understanding, skills in decoding or potentially difficulties including dyslexia), in order to address the concern and respond accurately. We are fortunate to have a dyslexia specialist in school who can support teaching staff in this process.

Reading for Pleasure:

Teachers share a class book or some poetry with their children on a daily basis; whilst this is a chance for pupils to observe an ‘expert’ reader, it also serves to show the pleasure that reading can give and children have a ‘say’ in the texts that are chosen.

Below, you can see the books that have been selected for ‘Storytime’ so far this year and the timetable that supports this activity.

The poetry is shared during ‘Rhyme Time’ on a Friday – and some of the example poetry texts that we enjoy in school are also shown below.

Story Time in EYFS:

Story Time in KS1:

Story Time in KS2:

Rhyme Time At Lantern Lane – Every Friday:

Progression in Reading:

To understand in more detail how we support children to progress as a reader, please see our progression document below:

Reading progression

Parent Partnership:

We understand the key role that parents play in helping their children become enthused and confident readers, providing advice and guidance to support them in this (see below). Children are encouraged to read regularly at home – and are rewarded when they do so.

In addition, we recognise the many benefits to children of being read aloud to on a regular basis. Below are some handy hints on how to get the most out of this experience:

Find out more in our subject policy – English 2022