Reading
At Fox Grove School we live to instil a love of the story experience for all pupils. We aim to enable every pupil to be able to access texts at all levels of development.
We believe reading is the key to unlocking the world of information and essential for fulfilment in an independent life at school and beyond.
Every class has access to daily shared reading of a range of book genres to promote reading for pleasure and purpose. The choice of books take account of the developmental stage and interests of pupils in the class. By celebrating the joy of hearing texts read aloud pupils can access discussions and increase their vocabulary at a higher level than that which they can read for themselves.
We teach phonics following Little Wandle Systematic Synthetic Programme SEND Graduated Approach daily. We enable all pupils to access appropriate phonics instruction using specialist techniques to address their complex learning needs. Pupils have access to Little Wandle decodable home school reading books which are taught in guided reading by the Class Teacher or Little Wandle trained staff. Pupils in Year 7 & 8 lower stages access Little Wandle Rapid Catch-up programme. For our higher stages in years 8 and 9 we are currently introducing Fresh Start as a phonics intervention for those pupils unable to decode.
At Fox Grove we use research informed approaches to address the teaching of reading in several ways. We plan for repetition and consolidation consistently throughout all year groups. We work 1:1 with pupils to ensure assessments are accurate to highlight gaps in knowledge or practise skills that take longer to become embedded such as phonological awareness or single word segmentation or blending.
After a significant period of time attempting applying phonic knowledge to reading pupils reaching phase 4 who are assessed as having no ability to blend access a sight recognition word reading programme called ‘See and Learn.’
Please see Reading Research sources document for more information.
Spelling skills are integral to Little Wandle approaches. Pupils learn to spell as they learn to read. Key spelling words are targetted within 1:1 phonics sessions each week. Secondary English lessons specifically teach and mark pupils writing for target vocabulary from the key text including statutory spelling words. Common exception words and statutory spellings words are included in the Spellings Overview for Fox Grove Stages.
To develop reading and comprehension skills whilst building a reading culture, classes engage with key texts at a greater depth. These texts are accessed through Sensory Stories at our lowest stages of progression. At our higher stages, pupils partake in shared reading of a class novel or non-fiction book. Key texts are carefully selected, representing a wide range of genres and cultural diversity. Please see attached for our Key Texts Overview. For our learners who have acquired phonics skills to read with fluency we use Renaissance Accelerated Reader Reading Scheme. Pupils access self-chosen books within their assessed Reading band. Pupils complete an online quiz for comprehension assessment of each finished book. A literacy assistant guides pupils with their comprehension of chosen texts within their level whilst independent reading. See our English Learning Journey document for specialist strategies applied along the reading and writing progression continuum within our Fox Grove Stages for Reading.
The Fox Grove English Learning Journey is a sequential and robust framework building on prior knowledge, creating connections in their learning and the confidence to draw upon their knowledge in different situations.
The National Curriculum age related content is delivered using specialist strategies specific to the Fox Grove 6 Stages of Progression for English.