At Mayville Academy, reading is at the heart of our curriculum. We believe that becoming a confident and fluent reader is fundamental to children’s success in school and enables them to understand, question and engage with the world around them.

Our curriculum is designed around the needs and starting points of our pupils. Many children enter school requiring additional development in communication, language, vocabulary and early literacy. We therefore prioritise language and reading from the earliest stages. Through Read Write Inc. for early reading and phonics, Literacy Counts – Ready Steady Read Together from Year 2 to Year 6, and our work with Voice 21, we aim for every child to read fluently, understand confidently, think critically and develop a lifelong love of reading. High-quality texts represent our pupils and communities while also opening windows onto experiences, cultures and perspectives beyond their own.

Our reading curriculum provides a clear journey from early language and systematic phonics to fluency, vocabulary, comprehension, critical reading and reading for pleasure. Teaching is carefully matched to pupils’ needs and progressively develops the knowledge and strategies required to access increasingly challenging texts.

• Early reading and phonics – Read Write Inc. is taught systematically in EYFS and KS1. Daily teaching develops sound knowledge, decoding, blending and word reading.
• Assessment and keep-up – pupils are assessed regularly so teaching and books are closely matched to phonic knowledge. Timely intervention supports pupils who need additional practice.
• Shared reading – from Year 2 to Year 6, Literacy Counts Ready Steady Read Together provides a progressive, evidence-informed approach to fluency and comprehension.

Teaching strategies

• Teacher modelling – teachers model accuracy, expression, pace, intonation and prosody, and explicitly demonstrate what successful readers do to break meaning down.
• Comprehension – pupils retrieve information, develop vocabulary, predict, infer, summarise, explain and justify ideas using evidence, consider authors’ choices and make connections within and between texts. This is explicitly modelled and taught using ‘strategy stops’.
• Oracy – our work with Voice 21 complements reading. Purposeful talk enables pupils to rehearse ideas, develop vocabulary, ask and answer questions, justify thinking and respond to different viewpoints.
• Vocabulary and background knowledge – teachers explicitly teach important vocabulary and build background knowledge where needed so that all pupils can access ambitious texts.
• Quizzes- interactive quizzes about what they have read to engage pupils and support retention of learning
• Wide genre - our children are exposed to a wide range of genre- each term two units are taught from each of fiction, non-fiction and poetry.
• Reading across the curriculum – pupils further encounter fiction and non-fiction across subjects including History, Geography and Science, developing subject-specific vocabulary and knowledge of the wider world.

Reading culture and reading for pleasure

Children regularly listen to high-quality books read aloud by adults and have opportunities for independent reading, book discussion and recommendations. Story time is protected so pupils hear expert reading, encounter rich vocabulary and enjoy books that may be beyond their current independent reading level.

Classroom reading areas provide engaging fiction, non-fiction and poetry books. Reading is celebrated through wider events and experiences, and families are encouraged to read regularly with their children and access Leytonstone Library.

Progression in reading

Reading develops progressively from phonological awareness and decoding to automaticity, fluency, vocabulary, comprehension and increasingly independent, critical reading.

• EYFS – children develop communication and language, phonological awareness, learn sounds, blend to read words and enjoy stories, rhymes and poems.
• KS1 – children secure decoding and word recognition, develop fluency and begin to retrieve, predict, infer and discuss vocabulary and meaning.
• KS2 – pupils read increasingly complex texts with fluency, build vocabulary and background knowledge, apply comprehension strategies independently and justify interpretations using evidence.

Inclusion

We have high expectations for all readers. Teachers use modelling, pre-teaching, flexible grouping, repeated reading, dual coding and appropriate scaffolding to ensure successful participation. Particular attention is given to pupils with SEND, EAL and pupils within the lowest 20% of readers. Barriers are identified early and targeted support is put in place.

• accurate modelling, repeated reading and opportunities to rehearse language and responses
• explicit teaching of decoding, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension strategies
• visuals, dual coding, phonics prompts, vocabulary support and scaffolded questions
• pre-teaching of vocabulary and background knowledge, partner talk and supportive technology where appropriate
• flexible grouping and targeted phonics, fluency or comprehension intervention informed by assessment
• regular review of progress so support can be adapted quickly when pupils are not keeping up

Challenge

Confident readers are challenged through increasingly complex texts, deeper discussion of authorial choices and viewpoints, evidence-based interpretation, connections across texts and opportunities to read widely and independently.

The impact of our reading curriculum is that pupils become fluent, confident and thoughtful readers who can successfully access the wider curriculum. They make strong progress from their starting points in accuracy, automaticity, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension; encounter literature that reflects their community and the wider world; and increasingly see themselves as readers who choose, discuss and enjoy books.

Assessment and monitoring

Teachers and leaders monitor impact through ongoing formative assessment, Read Write Inc. assessment, Ready Steady Read Together assessments, PiRA assessments, teacher assessment, SONAR, pupil progress meetings, pupil voice, book looks and reading monitoring. This enables strengths and gaps to be identified, with timely action for pupils requiring additional support. By the time children leave Mayville, we want them to have the knowledge, skills, confidence and enjoyment of reading necessary to succeed in the next stage of education and beyond.