READING | cedarstrust

Reading and Phonics

We believe strongly in the importance of learning to read and the importance of developing a love of reading.

Reading is integral to our curriculum and a lifelong skill that allows independent learning. We use clear and consistent whole Academy approaches that support the development of reading skills for students with a wide range of complex needs.

Language and communication for our students starts with their ability to communicate, use functional language and understand that words carry meaning. Engaging with and understanding spoken language is a vital precursor to developing reading skills and you will see a heavy focus on communication throughout the school, but most significantly in our youngest classes.

Our Curriculum is designed to enable our children to engage, innovate, develop and express through themed, termly imaginative learning projects encompassing meaningful key texts and book lists enabling a culture for a love of reading. Students are presented with many opportunities to read a range of genres and text types throughout the day as part of their curriculum offer.

As a specialist school, reading skills and knowledge across the curriculum is supported through approaches and thinking aligned to the learning characteristics associated with neurodiverse students and students with complex needs.

We aim to overcome barriers which can impact on the skills and knowledge that relate to reading.

Therefore, our approaches address the characteristics of:

Social communication difficulties (both receptive & expressive language that can impact on comprehension and inference skills)

Restricted or repetitive behaviours and interests (time for reading is included in individual students’ schedules and a wide variety of genres encouraged)

Sensory processing (difficulty filtering and modulating input - we provide quiet, distraction limited and inviting spaces to read)

Learning characteristics of autism impacting on reading:

Difficulty with implicit teaching (individuals require explicit teaching of reading)

Attention

Executive functioning (explicit teaching of how to use and navigate books and other texts)

Theory of mind (teaching social thinking and the perspective of characters/others)

Based on current research and theory the term ‘dyslexia’ as a specific learning difficulty can be used interchangeably with literacy difficulties (reading/spelling difficulties) at the word level. There are differences in the brain functioning of our neurodiverse students compared to their neurotypical peers. Some of our students will learn to read through the dual-route model, applying both phonological awareness and a memory store of whole words, recognised by sight.

We have a range of approaches to engage our students who are on the semi-formal pathway, to allow them a wide range of rich opportunities to develop the pre-requisite language skills needed to become a reader.

For our pupils following a formal curriculum pathway, where a phonological approach is appropriate The Read Write Inc is introduced in Phase One (EYFS and KS1) and continues throughout KS2 and KS3 if appropriate. The programme is used as a fun, sensory, visual and lively way to teach phonics. The aim of teaching our pupils phonics is to ensure that they can:

Decode words and texts so that they learn to read and can read to learn

Spell so that they can record accurately their own thoughts and ideas

Understand what they read

Our pupils who are learning to read will participate in at least five RWI lessons a week

Pupils will be grouped in homogenous groups with pupils who have similar phonetic ability

Pupils will have access to appropriately levelled RWI books matched to their phonetic ability

Further information can be found in this parents guide:

We recognise that some of our students may find the application of phonics difficult to master and the whole word route may be dominant for some students when learning to read. For some students, the use of symbols to support whole word reading in the first instance is necessary.

We offer pupils a well- balanced diet of literacy activities for reading:

Recognising that language development is vital to reading development and focus on vocabulary instruction

Ensuring that phonemic awareness and phonics are taught explicitly and systematically

‘Word study’ approaches, particularly for those with literacy difficulties

Teaching sight-vocabulary (to the point of fluency and supported initially through symbols)

Modelling, teaching and practice of reading comprehension strategies

Meaningful reading and writing opportunities

Encouraging fluent reading through shared and independent reading

Ensuring that students have opportunities to read for pleasure in quiet, relaxing spaces

Making sure pupils are reading at the ‘Just-Right’ level

Ensuring access to a wide range of reading materials, across multiple genres

How we promote a love of reading:

We recognise the importance of hearing and engaging with high quality texts above the reading level of the students. Research has shown that this enables students to hear new vocabulary and experience a story in its entirety, allowing them opportunity to develop comprehension skills and engagement. Therefore, all students will experience the adults in the class sharing a book with them on a daily basis.

Sensory stories also play an important role in all of our classrooms enabling all of the senses to be activated in addition to being lots of fun. Pupils also have regular access to our fabulous immersion room, which brings storytelling and experiences to life through a sensory and therapeutic approach.

Our classroom environments each have their own mini library that contain a range of carefully chosen texts including diversity and inclusion to enrich and broaden pupil experiences. The texts are also regularly reviewed to reflect pupils’ current interests.

We also aim to enhance our curriculum through the use of visiting story tellers, poets and theatre groups and provide opportunities for pupils to visit theatres. Throughout the year we offer a range of events for all pupils to participate in such a National Nursery Rhyme week, World Book Day, Get Caught Reading Days, National Poetry Day and termly Book Swap events.