Why do we teach Reading at Whitehouse?
At Whitehouse Pupil Referral Unit, we believe that reading is an essential life skill and we are committed to promoting in the children a love of reading and giving them opportunities to access and study a wide knowledge of reading genres and styles. At the heart of our strategy, is our drive to foster a love of reading in everyone, enriching children’s learning through carefully designed teaching activities that utilise imaginative stories and thought-provoking texts. We recognise that reading is a skill that enables children to develop their learning across the wider curriculum and lays the foundations for success in future lines of study and employment. We will endeavour to work with the pupils to close any gaps in knowledge and to support the children to feel more confident about their reading as they move onto their next setting.
What is the Reading curriculum offer at The Whitehouse?
We teach reading through the study of narratives, books, poems and plays. We carefully select our books to ensure they are interesting to children of all abilities, that they cover a range of genres and will appeal to a wide range of children with different reading experiences. All children will have three guided reading lessons a week, where the teachers will develop their reading comprehension and vocabulary skills to ensure they develop the skills necessary to be successful in their schools. We understand that many of our children may come to our setting with issues or prior experiences which make them reluctant readers. On entering our setting, we will quickly assess our children and put a programme of support or phonics in place if required to support the children, help them engage in reading and become a successful, independent reader. To this end, there is an expectation that children will read to an adult every day and those who still require support with phonics will have a daily phonics lesson (for further information on our phonics scheme, please read our phonics page). We also like to model reading and engage the children in age appropriate books regardless of their reading ability through the teacher sharing a story or book with them regularly throughout the week. As a school, we use Bug Club to provide the children with books from phonics through to independent readers to support and stimulate the children with their reading in class. These books are also available digitally so the children can engage in reading at home too.
How are knowledge and skills acquired in Reading?
At The Whitehouse, we understand that within the class there can be children with very different reading abilities. We use the national curriculum expectations to plan our coverage, however, we know that some of the children may not be able to read age appropriate texts. To this end, reading texts and lessons are planned to the meet the needs of the children in the class and activities are adjusted to the abilities of individuals in the classroom. To support the children, teachers plan activities that give the children the opportunity to work as a class, group or pair to help them share ideas and model and scaffold each other in their reading. We also try to represent a wide range of reading genres in our book selection to ensure we offer reading material that will appeal to but maybe also challenge the thinking of the pupils.
What enrichment opportunities do pupils receive in Reading?
At The Whitehouse, we link our reading and writing so that we use the same text to study through reading lessons and inspire us in our writing. Wherever, possible we also try to link our reading to subjects from the rest of the curriculum to enhance the children ‘s understanding of the topic being studies in geography, science or history. As a school, we work closely with the School Library Service to ensure we have a well-stocked, organised library that all the children have opportunities use and all classrooms have a book corner where the children may choose a book to read. We also welcome and plan for opportunities to meet and talk to authors and visit and engage in events that promote a love of reading.
