Ms Beer

Our SENCo Ms. Beer, who is also a trained Reading Recovery Teacher, works closely with teachers and children across the school to improve reading skills and facilitate accelerated progress through tailored reading plans and ongoing staff training. Ms Beer and Zoey the Reading Dog host an after-school Book Club for Foundation Stage children, Reading Gladiators in Key Stage 1 and support the Year 6 Reading Mentor team.

Reading Mentors

Each year, we carefully select a team of Year 6 Reading Mentors. These children are trained in early reading prompts and mentoring skills, and support children in Key Stage 1. Reading Mentors are confident, independent readers who make fabulous role models for our younger children and help to instil in them their own love of reading. They are full of enthusiasm to help the children develop as young readers and, in their turn, the Key Stage 1 children love and look forward to their Reading Mentor time.

Reading Gladiators

We develop the reading skills and appetites of the most able readers in each year group through book-club-style group sessions using books recommended in the Reading Gladiators scheme.  The children have the opportunity to read and discuss texts with challenging language, themes and ideas and are encouraged to lead the discussion and take responsibility for their own reading of the text at home.  The children love these sessions and look forward to them every week.

1:1 Reading
Our class-based teaching assistants work individually with focus children to boost their reading skills. These special partnerships give children regular opportunities to read 1:1 with an adult, using the three-read structure of Little Wandle reading sessions to increase their fluency, embed vocabulary and develop understanding:

First Read: focus on decoding
Second Read: focus on prosody (reading with expression)
Third read: focus on comprehension

All our teaching assistants are also trained in using reading prompts effectively to help move children’s reading forward. There’s an emphasis on selecting books that will enthuse the children, focusing in on their strengths as readers and developing other skills that will move them towards
becoming confident, independent readers.

Reading Volunteers

We are lucky to have a growing team of dedicated Reading Volunteers, most of whom are parents of children in our school. They work closely with our Reading Specialist Teacher to provide weekly 1:1 reading sessions with the children, based around individually tailored and evolving reading prompts. Reading Volunteers take children for special reading time in the comfortable reading nooks within our ample Library area.

1:1 Reading

Our class-based teaching assistants work individually with focus children to boost their reading skills.  These special partnerships give children regular opportunities to read 1:1 with an adult, using the three-read structure of Little Wandle reading sessions to increase their fluency, embed vocabulary and develop understanding:

First Read: focus on decoding

Second Read: focus on prosody (reading with expression)

Third read: focus on comprehension

All our teaching assistants are also trained in using reading prompts effectively to help move children’s reading forward.

There’s an emphasis on selecting books that will enthuse the children, focusing in on their strengths as readers and developing other skills that will move them towards becoming confident, independent readers.

Reading Volunteers

We are lucky to have a growing team of dedicated Reading Volunteers, most of whom are parents of children in our school. They work closely with our Reading Specialist Teacher to provide weekly 1:1 reading sessions with the children, based around individually tailored and evolving reading prompts. Reading Volunteers take children for special reading time in the comfortable reading nooks within our ample Library area.

Phonics and Reading

In Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1, children engage in lively interactive Phonics sessions that combine synthetic phonics with early reading skills. At Snodland, we believe in giving children a sound foundation in Phonics alongside skills in problem-solving, fluency, comprehension and self-monitoring. We have introduced the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds programme across the school to ensure greater consistency for our children; they learn and practise sounds and tricky words, then practise reading and rereading texts which use the sounds and words they have learned, both in school and at home.  Until our children become ‘free readers’, we use the Collins Big Cat Letters and Sounds scheme of decodable readers, which link to the Little Wandle phonics scheme. 

The children also take home non-decodable books for their parents to read to them, in order to broaden their vocabulary and understanding of the world as well as developing a love of books.  All our teachers and teaching assistants have completed the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds training to ensure consistency across the school. 

Pathways to Read

From Year 2 upwards, we follow Pathways to Read. The text provided, are all based around engaging stories and topics that the children really care about. The planning incorporates high-quality discussions that revolve around the essence of rich language. The programme gives pupils the opportunity to participate in fluency practice and a variety of reading activities, allowing them to enhance their vocabulary, make predictions, retrieve information and respond effectively using their mastery keys.

Many of the recommendations from ‘The Reading Framework’ are threaded throughout the programme. This includes a greater emphasis on reading fluency and pupils actively participating in oracy and reading aloud.

Creating a Reading Community

Inspired by our participation in Kingsnorth Reading Hub’s “Reading for Pleasure” project, we are working to create a “Community of Reading” which stretches beyond our school and outwards to families and the local community.  At present this involves family reading and library events, family opening times in the library and reading challenges which children and their families can take part in at home.  The project is in its early stages and something we are working to expand this year, so watch this space!