Reading

Intent

At TVEd, we strive to help our children develop into articulate and imaginative communicators, who are well-equipped with the basic skills they need to become life-long learners and have a positive impact on our community and industry at the heart of our area; English learning is key in this. We aim to ensure all of our children develop a genuine love of language and the written word, through a text-based approach; this links closely to the way we teach writing, as the text that we use in reading lessons, where possible, is a similar text to the one that we use in our writing lessons so that children are able to contextualise and apply their learning.

Careful links are made across the curriculum to ensure that children’s English learning is relevant and meaningful: where possible making links between reading and writing but also with the wider curriculum and world. We ensure that children develop an understanding of how texts are used in everyday life and, therefore, how important and useful the skills are that they are learning. Our intentions in reading are for children to:

• Read for purpose and identify the audience of different genres.
• See themselves as readers.
• Take ownership of their reading choices.
• Develop a love of reading.
• Be able to comprehend across a range of opportunities

Implementation

Our TVEd curriculum is shaped by the ethos ‘We are what we repeatedly do, excellence therefore is not an act but a habit’ which aims to enable all children, regardless of ability, additional needs or levels of disadvantage to flourish to become the very best version of themselves they can possibly be.

We teach the National Curriculum, supported by reading spines for a range of purposes. This ensures that skills and knowledge are built on year by year and sequenced appropriately to maximise learning for all children regardless of age, phase and stage. We aim to develop children’s ability to comprehend the texts they read and apply this skill in all areas of the curriculum.

Throughout the Early Years, Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2, we teach reading through a text-based approach linked to their writing, which allows us to meet the needs of the children that we are teaching – through choosing a text that will engage, inspire and motivate. As well as reading a wide variety of texts, children are given frequent opportunities to develop their writing skills in different genre and forms. Children will experience a balance of fiction, non-fiction and poetry in each term and will revisit text types in subsequent year groups to allow for spaced retrieval and to embed the science of learning and cognitive theory within all that they do.

Across the full Primary age range, the reading framework should be tailored to meet the needs of all pupils relative to age, stage and phase. At Tees Valley Education this incorporates our Formal, Semiformal+ and Semiformal curriculum pathways, teachers should tailor the teaching blocks and framework to suit the needs of the children within these pathways.

Impact

By the time they leave our academies, children will have developed the skills and knowledge necessary to allow them to:

• Read for purpose and identify the audience of different genres.
• See themselves as readers.
• Take ownership of their reading choices.
• Develop a love of reading.
• Be able to comprehend across a range of opportunities

Children will leave TVEd competent and confident readers who have developed a lifelong passion for reading.  They will have been given the opportunity to be exposed to a range of texts and  understand the different purposes of reading and the benefits to their lives.

Reading into Writing

Whilst the reading and writing approach stand-alone from each other there may be features in the reading text that can be highlighted to support the quality of writing by providing children with information or some specific features which will be useful to their independent writing. Making these kinds of links must not distract from exploring the text as a quality reading experience or quality writing experience. However, there is an expectation that the reading used will influence the writing and the writing genre should influence the reading comprehension texts and strategies chosen.