At The Levett School we believe that every pupil should be provided with the skill of being a fluent, confident reader who seeks out text types and materials of their own interest.
We want our pupils to develop a true love of reading by giving them opportunity and a voice for the materials we purchase and use in school. We also want pupils to have access to a range of reading materials, books, articles, newspapers, online sources, Kindles, iPads etc. to keep up with our ever changing world. During a pupil’s time at The Levett School, we want to remove barriers to learning by ensuring that reading is an enjoyable experience for the pupils we teach.
Teachers at The Levett School use a variety of strategies to support the teaching of reading. Decoding and SNIP interventions are two programmes which benefit early readers. It is vital that early reading skills are mastered early on for pupils to be able to progress in terms of comprehension skills and having a go at accessing more challenging materials.
At both our Lower and Upper site we have ‘Reading Racks’ for every class including the learning mentors room which include selections of reading materials requested by the pupils and those linked to topic. By using these, we are hoping to encourage pupils to recommend and try materials they may not have accessed before. The ones used in learning mentor rooms are based around emotions, SMSC, PSHE and LGBTQ. Here pupils can access texts and find out more information should they need to. They also serve to offer good discussion points during mentoring sessions. Our Lower site has a library which is used by pupils regularly, our Literacy TA keeps this updated with new and engaging texts as well as activities set up for different awareness days/weeks on the calendar. Due to class sizes at the Upper site, pupils have their own library, which is located at Lower site, here they will access a more age appropriate library area whilst also spending time mentoring younger pupils in school. This happens on a weekly basis.
Although we use Collins Big Cat as a reading scheme for pupils accessing decoding, there is a wide range of different schemes available for pupils to access. In addition to independent reading books, matched to pupils reading ability, we also encourage pupils to have a ‘free choice’ book; this could be anything they like which interests them. In addition to independent reading, at Lower School pupils have access to Guided Reading sessions when appropriate to come together to look at reading skills and to share ideas about a text.
The Doncaster Library Service have been a crucial partnership for us, pupils have visited there to give pupils a vision of reading outside of school. We entered the Reading Out Loud Competition in Doncaster and one of our pupils were successfully shortlisted. Pupils are awarded Class Points for reading and this usually sets them up for a positive start to the day.
We want pupils leaving The Levett School to have developed engagement in reading and close the gap but ultimately, develop a love of reading. We aspire for our pupils to read confidently, enthusiastically and to understand the scope of reading materials out there. Reading will be a key skill pupils are taught to help them succeed in every other curriculum area, it will be the key to success in terms of communication and knowledge and preparing them for the wider world.
All pupils undertake decoding (where appropriate) PM Benchmark and Salford Reading Assessments every 6 weeks so that clear monitoring and interventions can be delivered to close the gap.
