Reading
At HES reading is at the heart of everything we do and we work hard to develop a reading for pleasure culture. Teachers inspire pupils and engage them in reading widely.
We do this in a variety of ways:
Daily whole school reading: shared reading happens for fifteen minutes at the end of each day. A genre voted for by the pupils is read by an adult as a model for reading skills, and the pupils follow along using their own copy of the book.
A school library filled with books chosen by the pupils: we have recently restocked our bookshelves with books requested by our pupils. This has proven to be very successful because of their personal involvement and has seen an increase in use of books. We have a pupil reading ambassador who oversees our student library.
Bookflix: this encourages pupils to read and review what they have read to their peers. They are rewarded with a book voucher when they complete five book reviews. A trip to Astley’s book farm will give pupils a chance to spend their vouchers if they wish. A QR code with a link to the staff and pupil reading padlet is on the Bookflix display.
Modelling reading for pleasure as staff: This includes a book swap basket and a staff teams book chat. We share a reading padlet with pupils.
Small group or one-to-one reading interventions: for those who have fallen behind with reading, specialist interventions are run to support pupils. More details of how we do this can be found on our Phonics page [https://www.coventry.gov.uk/hospital-education-service/reading-3/2].
Phonics
Phonics and developing core reading skills
Twinkl Phonics
At the Hospital Education Service, we follow the Twinkl Phonics Scheme, which is a DfE-approved systematic, synthetic phonics scheme (SSP). Twinkl phonics is a scheme used by both mainstream and SEND schools and is structured in a way that can be adapted to suit a range of learning needs.
Read more information on the details of the scheme [https://www.twinkl.co.uk/resource/introduction-to-phonics-powerpoint-for-parents-and-carers-t-e-1648328755Â ].
If your child is following a different phonics scheme at their home school, we will teach them using the same scheme as their school.
Reading Schemes
As part of their lessons at HES, pupils have the opportunity to read a range of texts with matched decodable books that run alongside the phoneme progression of Twinkl phonics called Rhino Readers.
Secondary aged pupils
Some pupils of secondary age need core phonics skills. In this case, we follow the order of the Twinkl phonics programme but adapt the resources to make them age appropriate. We have specialist trained dyslexia staff who teach these pupils using the ‘Teaching Literacy to Learners with Dyslexia ‘ programme by Kelly and Phillips.
We have a selection of age-appropriate reading books from the Shannon Trust Turning Pages phonics scheme and use ‘hi-lo’ books from the Barrington Stoke publishers (these are higher interest age with a lower reading age).
