Reading

Prioritising reading at Lakenham

 At Lakenham Primary School, we are determined that every child will learn to read, regardless of background, needs or abilities. If a child can read, they can access the whole world of learning. 

As a school, reading is always part of our School Improvement journey as we are looking at ways to further enthuse children and families to develop children into readers.

Reading is taught right from the start of school, using FFT Aspire phonics as the foundations of build on. Phonics is taught daily, until children have met the expectations of the phonics programme. Once this happens, children are supported in improving their reading accuracy and fluency through the Lakenham Reading Cycle. 

The Lakenham Reading Cycle combines whole class and grouped reading, where our children can delve into a range of short and longer texts, in a range of genres, and discuss them with adults and peers. Click above to see examples of this in action.

How do we develop a love of reading?

The love of reading runs through everything that happens at Lakenham Primary. You will find non-fiction books, poetry, picture books and more across all curriculum areas to inspire, enthuse and explain. Our library areas help children to choose their next read, and of course reading for pleasure in classes, with staff who are enthusiastic about reading, goes a long way too.

Book club assemblies happy on Thursday afternoons, allow reading leaders to support staff and children to learn about a broader range of authors they might choose.

Each year group has its own progressive book spine which contains:

- Reading for pleasure/class books - these are progressive and are a range of genres. These books have been chosen to further develop children's vocabulary, introduce to different authors (including modern, new and from a different range of backgrounds) and some old favourites. This happens daily and the teachers tell the stories with enthusiasm.

- Class key texts - which are high quality texts that will be used to hook children into their writing genres.

- Additional supportive texts/media - these will be in the learning environment to support other curricular areas.

We hold World Book Day celebrations yearly! This year, is 'Read your way!' We have linked with a local bookstore who will judge our 'Book in a Box' competition, we will have a 'Whole-school' readathon at 3pm and are going to come to school dressed to reflect our favourite books.

Reading at Home

We encourage our children to read daily at home and log their reading on BoomReader. 

Have you attended any of the Reading Cafes, so you are able to help your child read at home?

Tips for Home Reading – Parent Portal 

What do we use to help teach reading?

To teach reading, Lakenham Primary uses a structured phonics program to support the development of reading skills. The phonics program is appropriately structured and sequenced to support pupils progress with reading. 

All year groups have reading spines which include core texts which includes fiction and non-fiction, poems and reading for pleasure.

What types of books do we start with?

When children are learning to read, they are given decodable books which match the sounds they have been taught. These are from the FFT Success for All Phonics books range.

How do we ensure children can catch up?

 Children who need further support with their phonics in Key Stage, have daily phonics lessons where they revisit and embed the sounds and apply them in their reading. We have a range of books that are aimed at older readers, but written in a way that supports readers who aren't as confident with their fluency.

How are our staff trained?

 All our teaching staff, including our TAs, have received the phonics training directly from FFT. We have also supported our team with team-teaching to make sure that everyone feels confident in teaching phonics.

What next when we can read?

When our children are fluent readers - meaning they no longer need to decode what they are reading (through segmenting and blending) - they choose reading books from our amazing library. We have a dedicated team of librarians (year 4 and 5 children) who are on hand to help others choose books that they will enjoy, from short chapter books, to longer stories, graphic novels and more!