Reading

Our intent at Gulval School in Reading is

We want to give children the best start on their reading journey from the earliest opportunity with a consistent approach to daily Phonics, providing children with the early reading skills they need to become confident, fluent readers with a real love for reading.

We want children to draw on familiar stories to become passionate story tellers, developing a life-long curiosity, fascination and love for reading. We want to immerse children in high quality, imaginative stories and thought-provoking texts that they simply won’t want to put down!

We want children to enjoy sharing books with one another; their friends and their families at home and of course with all of our school animals too! We want children to feel supported throughout their reading journey, on their pathway to becoming confident fluent readers.

We want children to read a rich collection of fiction and non-fiction literature ranging from graphic novels, classic texts and magazines to comics, poems and modern stories; all written by a variety of authors. We want children to access books closely matched to their reading ability, books they can successfully comprehend.

We teach children how to retrieve information from a text, make inferences and predictions, sequence, summarise, explain and explore exciting new vocabulary. We want children to develop these reading skills so that they are better equipped to access all that we have to offer.

Intent, Implementation, Impact Reading skills progression Gulval’s Reading Spine

Phonics

We use Read Write Inc. to teach daily Phonics through EYFS and KS1. Firstly children learn one way to read the 40+ sounds and blend these sounds into words. Then they will learn to read the same sounds with alternative graphemes.

They experience success from the very beginning through lively Phonics lessons. Phonics books are precisely matched to children’s increasing knowledge of Phonics and ‘red’ words and, as children re-read the stories, their fluency increases.

Reading at home with RWI Phonics

7 Aspects of Reading

Class Reading

Once children have completed the Read Write Inc. Phonics scheme, reading is taught through whole class reading sessions. The teaching here focuses on the reading skills and allows children to continue to develop their fluency, expression and knowledge of books and authors. Children will continue to develop the ability to retrieve information from the text, develop key vocabulary, make inferences, predictions, sequence, explain and summarise.

Reading Rivers

Our Reading Rivers consist of a collection of reading challenges to complete. Each river is themed around the places it flows through. There will no doubts be rapids, hold ups and barriers to overcome along the way but with lots of practice, it could be plain sailing! The ‘Reading River’ cards should be kept in your child’s bag and handed into your class teacher when an activity has been completed. The challenges need to be completed in order.

We will encourage children to complete the rivers more than once throughout the year but equally it is not a race. The aim of this is to increase the quantity and quality of the reading practice at home. A certificate will be awarded for completing it once. If they complete it twice, they will be awarded a book token to spend in the vending machine and those children who manage to complete it three times will go into a big prize draw.

In our school library, we have access to all of the Gulval recommended reads for each year group which can be found listed on the back of the Reading Rivers. You can borrow these books to support your Reading River journey.

Set 1 Sound Mat Set 2 Sound Mat Set 3 Sound Mat Sound Mat for Spelling Year 1 Red Words Year 2 Common Exception Words Year 3 and 4 Common Exception Words KS2 High Frequency Words

Team Gulval Recommended Reads

This is our growing list of books that we recommend for both you and your children! Let us know what you think of our suggestions and if there are any books that you’ve read recently that you think others would enjoy. Get in touch