Our Reading Ambition

Reading is a skill for life and learning to read is a key part of preparing our pupils for their next stages in education and adulthood.

We will ensure all pupils receive quality first teaching of reading. Our ambition is to enable all pupils to:

• Read words and texts fluently with a good understanding – for pleasure, to communicate and for information
• Find pleasure in a book
• Acquire a wide vocabulary by reading independently and being read to by an adult

Learning to read falls under all 5 of our curriculum drivers for pupils to lead happy, independent and successful lives.

INDEPENDENCE – FUNCTIONALITY – CHOICE – VOICE – JOY OF LIVING

Milton’s Reading Strategy

• We believe that with the right support, every pupil regardless of background or special need can learn to read.
• We know some pupils will not find learning to read easy, but we won’t give up.
• We ensure the teaching of reading is high profile in all classes each day.
• We will timetable daily opportunities for pupils to read independently, read aloud and to be read to by an adult.
• We systematically teach phonics by showing fidelity to Read Write Inc programme.
• We have a clear pre-phonics programme which is taught daily to support our pupils to tune into sounds.
• We have clear systems to get pupils reading and keep pupils reading.
• We have a systematic 4 stage programme moving from pre-phonics, phonics, fluency and then reading widely.
• We have regular staff training to ensure staff are skilled in the teaching of phonics and reading.
• We maintain a culture of reading for pleasure through classroom book areas, story time, book club and reading events.

We collaborate with families to extend our reading culture into the home.

How is reading taught at Milton?

We take a stage not age approach to the teaching of reading at Milton.

All classes have dedicated reading lesson on the timetable each day. During this lesson pupils will be taught at the stage appropriate to their reading development.

The stages of the reading curriculum at Milton are:

Milton’s approach to teaching Phonics

Read Write Inc is the phonics scheme taught from EYFS onwards. All pupils who require phonics teaching are taught daily. The nature of our pupils' special needs sometimes means that our older pupils are still 'early readers' and require daily phonics teaching. The RWI programme of study is progressive and builds upon prior knowledge and learning.

What does phonics look like at Milton?  

Our daily phonics sessions consist of  

• Set 1,2 and 3 sounds, dependent on the pupil's individual target 

• Decoding and blending green words  

• Decoding and blending red words   

•  Applying phonetic skills when reading RWI phonics books 

• Decoding and blending compound words   

• Readying individuals for national phonics screenings 

• Development of comprehensive skills  

• Intervention from summative and formative assessments  

• Modelling of letter formation linked to the RWI rhymes and phrases  

• Ensuring the fidelity of the RWI scheme is present throughout all of our RWI groupings   

Pre-phonics  

How are pupils prepared to start their phonics?  

Pre-phonics is crucial to early listening, speaking, and sound awareness skills that prepare children for formal phonics instruction, focusing on playful activities like rhyming, rhythm, sound matching (alliteration), syllable distinction and general language development before introducing letter-sound links (RWI), building a strong foundation for reading success.  

At Milton we aim to incorporate, nursery rhymes, sensory stories, sensory buckets, musical distinctions, exposure to Makaton sighs, intensive interactions and attention autism games. At Milton we focus on stage not age. 

Phonics assessments are carried out each half term by our phonics and reading leaders. These assessments are used to identify pupils who may need a little extra support.

Our school phonics leads and trust Director for Reading and Phonics regularly monitor the quality of phonics teaching and ensure that books are well matched for each pupil

How do pupils become fluent readers? 

Once Milton pupils have finished their phonics journey they enter on to our fluency stage of reading. This ensures that each child continues to be supported with books that still require decoding and blending yet progress pupils on to working on the fluency of reading. We ensure the fluency stage is tailored towards individual's needs through continued assessment and through assignment of the appropriate stage related fluency book.  

We offer the pupils the 'Reading Planet' fluency scheme. A choice of Cosmos (ARE) or Astro (HiLo) reading books are used to ensure the interest level engages the pupils within this reading stage. 

How do we encourage home reading?

Reading at home is a key part of the Milton reading journey, we work along side parents to encourage and support home learning throughout all of the reading stages.  

Within pre-phonics we share with parents the rhymes, vocabulary, fine motor, Makaton and gross motor skills they can complete with their child to further consolidate their learning, as well as sending home set 1 RWI cards, nearing the end of their pre-phonics journey. Oxford owl is a key platform that we promote, sharing specific phonics books to each child based on their personal learning journey.  

Boost learning is the platform we use to ensure pupils are supported in the fluency stage of their learning. Both Cosmo and Astro books are assigned to children for home learning, using E-learning books ensures the learning at school can be bridged with the learning at home.   

Each week each child chooses a reading for pleasure book, this is to be shared at to encourage the love of reading, alongside their regular reading book.  

We also support parent throughout the year with regular phonics and reading workshops and our half termly 'stay and read' sessions.  

How do we encourage reading for pleasure?

We aim for all our pupils to experience the joy and pleasure of reading and being read to. Through establishing a culture of reading for pleasure we want to open up new worlds for our pupils and provide them opportunity to use their imagination. We recognise that for many of our pupils having time to read a book and/or being read to supports their mental health and well-being.   

Classrooms in all key stages at Milton have a book area with high quality books to capture the interest of pupils. Pupils are welcome to take a book from the shelf home.

We believe that it is important that pupils in all key stages have the opportunity to be read to by an adult. For this reason, all classes come together at the end of the day to enjoy storytime (lower and upper school) and class read (upper school).

All classes end the day with a book. In lower and middle school we have story time and in upper school we have class read time.

All pupils are welcome to attend our lunchtime book club.

Turning the page: 50 Milton reads

We have carefully curated a list of 50 books we would like pupils to read or be read to during their journey at Milton. The books have been selected to:

• encourage a love of reading
• expose pupils to a wide range of vocabulary
• introduce them to new genres and authors

By reading these books to pupils in class we hope to influence their future reading choices.

Milton Reading Leads