Our vision

At Henleaze Infant and Junior Schools, our aim is that all children are able to read fluently, both aloud and in their head, comprehend, predict and summarise at an age appropriate level and are inspired to enjoy a love of reading and are able to choose reading material that excites them. 

In our schools, we celebrate reading and recognise its importance as a key part of early childhood development. We value effort and success in reading, celebrate the way imaginations bring reading to life and encourage making reading a part of our daily life and learning.

​Reading is the key to unlocking learning as children grow and, at our schools, we encourage children to engage in books, storytelling and performance and foster a love of reading that grows as children move through our schools. We strive to encourage children to find a passion for reading that goes beyond the four walls of the classroom.

​Our Curriculum

At Henleaze Infant and Junior Schools, we follow the CUSP curriculum for reading in addition to the Unlocking Letters and Sounds structured phonics scheme (see separate phonics page). It is cumulative, coherent and connected. Across the CUSP Early Foundations (Structured Storytime) and Primary Reading sequence, what pupils will know and be able to do across the curriculum has been carefully mapped. 

The CUSP Reading curriculum is built on three core pillars:

1. Explicit vocabulary instruction

2. Prosodic reading (explicit teaching of fluency)

3. Thinking hard

It is a balanced, ambitious and rich reading curriculum that is built on brilliant literature. Reading competencies are progressively and systematically mapped into the offer.

To be a competent reader, pupils must employ multiple cognitive processes all at once. These are mapped as 9 reading competencies:

1. Language meaning 

2. Retrieving key details 

3. Summarising, reframing and performance 

4. Making meaning 

5. Thematic and structural understanding 

6. Authorial intent 

7. Comparison and connection 

8. Reading behaviours 

9. Personal response.

The curriculum has a carefully designed core literature spine which is built in harmony with the wider curriculum. Diverse representation is evident in the thematic mapping document. The literature spine is mapped in 18 blocks for each year group. Each block lasts for two weeks. Some texts will be read over just one 2-week block; others will be read over two or three 2-week blocks.

Reading is taught daily and some children may also participate in additional pre-reading sessions, to enable them to access the content of the reading lessons.

Pupils read whole texts (books) on days 1/4/5 of each week. On days 2/3 of each week, they read supplementary texts. These are written to enhance pupils’ understanding of the core text and ensure that pupils read a broad range of text types. Each day focuses on a different reading competency. Questions are deliberately varied to help children think hard about what they have read. Reading fluency is explicitly taught as one of the three parts of every lesson. We use a range of prosodic reading strategies in reading and across the curriculum. These help to ensure that every pupil is able to access high-demand literature, regardless of their decoding ability. 

At Henleaze Infant School, we use Unlocking Letters and Sounds, a DFe validated SSP programme. We begin teaching phonics in the first term of Reception and children make rapid progress in their reading journey. In Reception, children begin to learn the main sounds heard in the English Language and how they can be represented, as well as learning Common Exception Words for Phases 2, 3 and 4. They use these sounds to read and write simple words, captions and sentences. Children leave Reception being able to apply the phonemes taught within Phase 2, 3 and 4. In Year 1 through Phase 5a, b and c, they learn any alternative spellings and pronunciations for the graphemes and additional Common Exception Words. By the end of Year 1 children will have mastered using phonics to de-code and blend when reading and segment when spelling. In Year 1 all children are screened using the National Phonics Screening Check. In Year 2, phonics continues to be revisited to ensure mastery and any child who does not meet age related expectations in Year 1 will continue to receive support to close identified gaps. To ensure no child is left behind at any point in the progression, children are regularly assessed and children at risk of falling behind the program are identified. They are then supported to keep up through bespoke 1-1 precision teaching, and segmenting and blending interventions. 

Impact

Each year group has clear cumulative end goals – these are identified for teachers. For early readers, the development of reading skills is seen in progress through book bands which are continually reviewed by class teachers. In KS2, children’s fluency is monitored by assessing reading speeds in each year group up to 3 times per year. Reading comprehension tests are also used to assess children in Years 3–5, 3 times per year and 4 times per year in Year 6. Reading comprehension is also assessed in Year 6 SATS.

 

Reading literature overview

	Year R		Year 1	Year 2	Year 3	Year 4	Year 5	Year 6
Terms 1 and 2	Celebrations around the world  What makes me a me?  Bear shaped Each peach pear plum Pumpkin Soup   Standing Up to Racism I’m (almost) always kind The squirrels who Squabbled		3 x Structured Storytime Beegu 1 Block Where the Wild Things Are 2 Blocks The Storm Whale 1 Block The Owl and the Pussycat 1 Block Aesop’s Fables – The Boy Who Cried Wolf 1 Block	Grandad's Island 1 Block Aesop's Fables - The Goose that laid the Golden Eggs 1 Block Mrs Noah's Pockets 1 Block Paddington 2 Blocks The Christmas Pine 1 Block	Greta and the Giants 1 Block Pebble in my Pocket 2 Blocks Leon and the Place Between 2 Blocks ‘Twas the Night before Christmas Anon 1 Block	The Queen’s Nose 2 Blocks The Raven 1 Block The Girl who stole an Elephant 3 Blocks	Shackleton’s Journey 3 Blocks The Explorer 3 Blocks	Roof toppers (& The Listeners – Walter de la Mare) 3 Blocks Pig Heart Boy 2 Blocks How to live forever 1 Block
Terms 3 and 4	Chicken Clicking  Shu Lin’s Grandpa Clean up The Gingerbread man Anansi and the Golden Pot Mr Wolf’s Pancakes Martha Maps it Out It's a no money day  Luna loves Dance		The Tale of Peter Rabbit 2 Blocks Look Up! 1 Block And Tango Makes Three 1 Block Chocolate Cake 1 Block	The Quangle Wangle's Hat 1 Block · Coming to England 1 Block The Street Beneath My Feet 1 Block Rhythm of the Rain 2 Blocks Aesop’s Fables – The Sun and The Wind 1 Block	Sam Wu is Not Afraid of the Dark 3 Blocks (includes My Shadow Robert Louis Stephenson) Operation Gadgetman 3 Blocks	Varjak Paw 3 Blocks Young, Gifted and Black 3 Blocks (Caged Bird - Maya Angelou)	The Boy in the Tower (including Daffodils – William Wordsworth) 3 Blocks A Midsummer Night’s Dream 1 Block I am not a label 1 of 2 Blocks	Skellig (+Flanders poem) 3 Blocks All Aboard the Empire Windrush 2 Blocks The Island 1 Block
Terms 5 and 6	Mrs Noah’s Garden Luna Loves Art  The Invisible  The Wonder The Dark Tad Winnie-the-Pooh Helps the Bees The story orchestra Things that Go		Here We Are 2 Blocks The Lion Inside 1 Block There’s a Rangtan in my bedroom 2 Blocks Aesop’s Fables – The Hare and the Tortoise 1 Block The Proudest Blue 1 Block	Little People Big Dreams (DA) 1 Block Fantastically Great Women Who Changed the World 2 Blocks Fantastic Mr Fox 3 Blocks	Dancing Bear 3 Blocks The Magician’s Nephew 3 Blocks	Young, Gifted and Black 1 Block (Caged Bird - Maya Angelou) The Boy at the back of the class 3 Blocks Wind in the Willows (The Walrus and the Carpenter – Lewis Carroll) 3 Blocks	I am not a label 2 of 2 Blocks Secrets of a Sun King and If – Rudyard Kipling 3 Blocks Five Children and It 3 Blocks	The Island 1 Block Dare to be You (KS2 – KS3 transition) 3 Blocks Intro to Dickens – Oliver Twist 3 Blocks

 

Phonics curriculum map

Term	Reception	Year 1	Year 2
Term 1	From week 3: Phase 2 s a t p i n m d g o c k ck e u r h b f ff l ll ss	Consolidate Phase 3 and Phase 4 for reading and writing (including CEWs)	Phase 5a & 5b mastery   NC spelling objectives for Y2
	including common exception words for Phase 2
Term 2	Phase 3 j v w x y z zz qu ch sh th ng ai ee igh oa oo ar or ur ow oi ear air ure er	Phase 5 part 1 for reading ay ou ie ea oy ir ue aw wh ph ew oe au ey a-e e-e i-e o-e u-e   Consolidate Phase 3 and 4 for writing (including CEWs)	Phase 5b and 5c mastery   NC spelling objectives for Y2   NB in 2021; Y2 all Y2 children will undertake the national Phonics Screening Check.
	including common exception words for Phase 3		Any child who is not secure in phase 5 mastery will continue to receive quality first teaching of phonics in Y2.
Term 3	Consolidate Phase 2 and Phase 3 (including CEWs)	Phase 5 part 2 for reading Alternative pronunciations for graphemes. Examples include: find including common exception words for Phase 5   NC spelling objectives for Y1	NC spelling objectives for Y2
Term 4	Consolidate Phase 2 and Phase 3 (including CEWs)	Consolidate Phase 5 parts 1 and 2 for reading (including CEWs)   NC spelling objectives for Y1	NC spelling objectives for Y2
Term 5	Teach Phase 4 examples of cvcc and ccvc words include: bend, mend, hump, track Also includes phase 4 common exception words	Consolidate Phase 5 parts 1 and 2 (including CEWs)	NC spelling objectives for Y2
Term 6	Consolidate Phase 3 and Phase 4 (including CEWs)	Consolidate Phase 5 parts 1 and 2 (including CEWs) Phase 5 part 3   Phonics screening check for children in Y1	NC spelling objectives for Y2       Phonics screening check for children in Y2 who did not meet pass mark threshold in Y1 (and in Autumn 2 2021)