“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more you learn, the more places you’ll go.”— Dr. Seuss, “I Can Read With My Eyes Shut!”

We love to read at Gomer and find as many opportunities to do so. We recognise that reading is an essential skill.  It develops the brain, provides a window into the world around us and helps us do better in all school subjects. Did you know that?

  • 800 million people around the world cannot read or write
  • Many families (and some schools) have no books for children to read – we raised funds on our last World Book Day to help change this.

We are lucky at Gomer to have lots and lots of books which we look after and refresh regularly. Some children at Gomer find reading tricky or read with confidence and struggle to extract key information – inference. We are working hard on developing the children’s inference skills alongside engendering a love of reading for pleasure. Outlined below is how we incorporate reading into everyday life at Gomer. For tips on how to help with reading at home please visit: http://gomerjuniorschool.co.uk/home-reading-help/

Reading Curriculum

Reading is integrated into all curriculum areas in the Junior school. Children read to be informed and entertained across a range of subject areas – we have a genre map to ensure good coverage.  Reading is a consistent expectation for Home Learning and parents are kept well informed of their child’s progress through termly learning review meetings, banded books and reading diaries in the lower school (where required). 

The skills of guided reading are taught in each year group upon entry to KS2. Guided reading occurs every day for 30 to 60 minutes in every year group and is planned to suit the needs of the cohort. Class teachers lead focus groups to enable children to access texts which challenge to extend and develop the critical skills of inference and deduction, at all levels (see guided reading plan).

Reading resources to support the reading curriculum alone are sourced from 2 main schemes of work. The Badger Learning ‘real’ texts and the Project X reading scheme. Using the colour bands, these schemes enable clear progression from KS1-2, in preparation for transition to secondary school. 

Learning to read at Gomer Junior School 

Children establish an ability to read using the Read Write Inc Phonic scheme in KS1. Children continue to develop their understanding of phonics to support reading if their phonic learning has not been complete or successful at KS1; Gomer Junior school continues this support through its Read, Write, Inc intervention schemes (see Reading support below).

Children learn to become fluent readers through books levelled with coloured Book Bands in Key Stage 1 and 2. Book bands enable both the Infant and Junior schools to introduce a breath of genres and authors across a variety of published reading schemes, where children access a variety of texts to keep them engaged during their journey to literacy. The colour bands are applied consistently across the 2 Gomer key stages, between schools, which help enable progression through the National Curriculum standards.

The guided reading schemes used to teach children the skills of understanding texts, also use the book banding system, so that children are easily resourced for and taught using this consistent method of assessment and identification. 

“Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body”, Joseph Addison.

Reading Assessment

  • On entry to the Junior school, children are assessed using the Salford reading test. This gives the receiving teacher a baseline age-related score, which can be used as a comparable measure alongside peers and at assessment intervals during the academic year.

For children who are not currently at age related expectation (ARE) or on the register for having SEND, this measure is repeated in subsequent year groups to track progress.

  • Formative assessment (during a teacher unit) is collated from weekly focussed guided reading sessions, which occur to enable children with the skills to decode unfamiliar words and  to understand and appreciate a range of texts and genres. 

Children who are on the SEND register may receive additional reading support and intervention using  programmes such as Rapid Reader and Read, Write Inc Fresh Start. These interventions will also inform formative assessments, through their bespoke assessment systems track progress and attainment throughout the programmes of study.

  • Summative assessment (at the end of a teaching unit) of reading is conducted toward the end of each term in each year group, with NFER tests. These enable teachers to assess comprehension ability and also analyse specific areas of weakness or strength in individuals and across a year group. This information can then be used to strategically plan for each child in the future term or academic year. 

Reading support

Reading is supported in addition to the regular curriculum, with a selection of successful intervention schemes. These include:

  • Rapid Reader
  • Read Write Inc Phonics
  • Read Write Inc Fresh Start
  • Toe by Toe
  • Dandelion Readers