How We Teach Reading at The Trinity Primary Academy

Learning to read is one of the most important things your child will learn at our school. Everything else depends on it, so we put as much energy as possible into making sure that every single child learns to read as quickly as possible.

We want your child to love reading – and to want to read for themselves. This is why we work hard to make sure children develop a love of books as well as simply learning to read. Developing a love of reading supports mental health, developing a greater sense of empathy and improving social skills

We start by teaching phonics in Reception, following the Sounds Write approach (more information can be found in the 'Phonics' section of our website). A great importance is placed on early reading, and the children have phonetically decodable books along with 'reading for pleasure books' that they take home with them daily. These give the children lots of opportunity to practice the skills they are learning in school, as well as giving the children freedom to choose books that inspire a love of reading. 

Teachers also regularly read to the children, ensuring they get to know and love all sorts of stories, poetry and information books. This helps to extend children’s vocabulary and comprehension, as well as supporting their writing. Within Early Years and Key Stage One, class reading is largely taught through 'Book Talk' with a transition into our Key Stage Two approach in the latter half of Year 2. 

As the children move up through the school they are taught reading skills through a Whole Class Guided Reading lesson. This is supplemented by 1:1 reading with an adult, often the Teacher or Teaching Assistant but also reading volunteers. Our reading lessons use a class text that is matched to the age related expectations for each year group, also providing challenge, through the language, themes and plot. The Teacher works with the whole class and groups of children to develop their vocabulary, inference, prediction, explanation, evaluation, summarizing and sequencing skills. The focus in these lessons is on "staying in the story", this is done through discussion and careful questioning that builds and supports reading skills. It is through these lessons and an exposure to high quality texts, that we foster and develop both reading comprehension skills but the joy and love of reading.

However as children progress through the school, they record written responses to comprehension style questions to prepare them for the end of Key Stage 2 expectations. All children are supported in accessing the age appropriate text for their year group. If children need additional support with phonics and decoding this support is provided through individualised intervention and tracked by our English lead, Mrs Kate Dummett (kdummett@trinityschooldevizes.dsat.org.uk) 

Our English leader is:

• Mrs Dummett