Reading

Intent 

At Minet Junior School, reading is a top priority and is a key driver in our curriculum, which has been adapted to meet the needs of our diverse intake of children. Our Reading intent is to ensure our children transition to high school as confident, fluent readers who have a passion for reading (beyond the National Curriculum) and who have lifelong positive attitudes towards reading.

Reading is a fundamental part of our school as it is a skill, which underpins a child’s ability to access the wider curriculum. It allows them to broaden their vocabulary, develop their vivid imaginations and prepare them for the wider world.

We aim to provide our children with a literacy-rich environment, high quality texts and inspiring learning opportunities, which will help them to:

• To read independently, fluently and expressively, with understanding, enjoyment and confidence.
• To foster an enthusiasm and love of reading for life.
• To understand what they have read and link it to their own lives and experiences, developing a deeper level of emotional intelligence.
• To understand the link between reading and writing and apply techniques discovered in their reading and writing.
• To create a language rich environment that will support pupils in their reading and writing.
• To develop comprehension skills of inference and deduction.
• To talk confidently about their reading.
• To apply a knowledge of structured synthetic phonics (phonic, graphic, syntactic, contextual) to decode unfamiliar words with increasing accuracy and speed.  

Reading and Phonics is a high priority to address gaps due to deprivation and cultural diversity, which will feed into all areas of the curriculum.

Implementation 

At Minet Junior School, our Reading curriculum is delivered through a variety of ways to provide the children with frequent opportunities to develop their reading. We teach daily guided reading lessons, which are adapted to engage and enthuse our children from a range of diversities, as well as regular whole class reading within our English lessons. In addition, we allocate time within our timetable for the children to read a book of their choosing independently, as well as time in the day when the teacher reads the children their chosen class book, giving children time to listen and enjoy a book being read to them.

For those children who require further support with their reading, we use ECAR (Every Child A Reader) for children working below their reading age and also run daily Read Write Inc classes for our EAL children who need further support. We continually monitor our children’s development with regular 1:1 reading sessions using banded books, which are also used as home reading books. This is monitored online and parents are provided with Bloom’s Taxonomy questions stems to support reading at home. In addition to this, we also provide numerous opportunities for reading in other areas of the curriculum, allowing the children to develop their thirst for reading, improve their vocabulary and further develop their comprehension skills through cross-curricular reading.

Impact

By the end of their time at Minet Junior School, children will be confident readers who are reading at an age appropriate level. We believe that reading is the key to all learning and that the impact of our reading curriculum goes beyond the results of statutory assessments.  As they move through the school, children develop their fluency and comprehension whilst accessing a range of texts with support and independently. Our teacher assessments and termly standardised tests allow us to measure individual progress and attainment. Our pupil progress meetings allow us to identify and implement additional support for those that need it. When they leave us, we want children to possess the reading skills and love of literature that will help them enjoy and access any aspects of learning they encounter in the future.

World Book Day 2024!

On Thursday 7th March 2024, the children came to school dressed as a book character.  They in brought their favourite book or a book that meant something to them in to school to discuss with their peers. We held an assembly so the children could see each other’s costumes and the best costume in each class completed a catwalk across the stage and received a book. We had Olivers, Matildas, Red Riding Hoods and Willy Wonkas! The children looked amazing and even the teachers dressed up too! Along with a winner from each class, we also had a bets dressed winner from each year group that will recieve a £5 voucher!

Dog Man, Gangsta Granny, Malala Yousafzai and Mr Bump

In the lead up to World Book Day 2024, we invited author Cliff McNish to our school. He did a whole school assembly, enticing the children in with the beginning of his book: Doomspell, before running a workshop with each year group.

Year 4:

On Tuesday, year 4 were delighted to have a writing workshop led by the author, Cliff McNish. During the session, we wrote about travelling to an imaginary world through a magical gateway. Cliff inspired us to use our senses in creating vivid descriptions. The session was to be extremely enriching, as we were captivated by Cliff's enthusiasm and passion for storytelling.

Year 5:

The session began with Cliff introducing himself and explaining why he wanted to become an author. After that, Cliff talked about some of his books and what inspired him to write.
Next, Cliff showed the children a selection of pictures and asked them to discuss and describe what was happening in groups. Cliff explained that as you look closely at a picture, you are able to use your imagination to decide who the characters are, where they are and what they might be doing.
After this, the children practiced making notes about one of the pictures and Cliff discussed what the ‘gateway’ might be. Cliff used the term ‘gateway’ as a portal into another time or place. Finally, the children used their ideas to create their own stories and some pupils were able to share their work with the rest of the year group at the end of the session.

Year 6:

During Year 6’s writing workshop with Cliff McNish, the children created their own ghosts to link to his book ‘Breathe’. The children were taught how to create a back story for their ghost based on the 5 reasons for death. Once the children had decided how their ghost became a ghost, they then created all the additional characters or links. The children really enjoyed being able to write about ghosts and mysteries. At the end of the workshop, Cliff spoke of how ghosts move and encouraged the children to finish their character’s at home.

O

Adisa - The Verbaliser

Following World Book Day on the 2nd of March, Adisa (The Verbaliser), a poet, visited our school. He did an hour long performance for all children, which had them engaged and participating throughout. They listened intently to the performances of his poems such as 'Fat Bucks' and 'Just like the sun' and had to fill in the missing rhyming words. The children LOVED watching him perform. Some children from each year group then had the opportunity to attend a workshop with him where they created their own poems about things they were passionate about.

World Book Day 2023!

On Thursday 2nd March the children came to school dressed as a book character.  They also brought their favourite book or a book that meant something to them in to school to discuss with their peers. We held an assembly so the children could see each other’s costumes and the best costume in each class completed a catwalk across the stage and received a book. 

Shared Reading

During Autumn term, some Year 5 children will be visiting the Infant school on a weekly basis to read with the children. The children in Year 5 have made reading buddies with Year 2 children. They read a variety of picture books to the children and absolutely loved getting to know the younger classes. We are looking forward to continuing this weekly program and cannot wait to see the progress that the children make with their reading. 

World Book Day Reading Competition 

56 children scored 20/20 on the world book day competition. Out of those children, there was one winner from each year group. They each picked a book to take home as a prize.