This half term Year 6 have been reading a range of text types including fiction, non-fiction and poetry. As a class, they have completed their class novel by Emma Carroll ‘Secrets of a Sun King’. Not only was this a great read it also developed the class's understanding of historical fiction further. Year 6 are now well underway with their summer term novel ‘Holes’. In preparation for Key Stage 2 SATS, Year 6 have been developing their inference skills and exploring the impact of authorial vocabulary choice and how authors can create mood and promote a given impression of a setting or character through the class novel. They have also developed their non-chronological report writing skills by producing factual writing about the ancient Maya civilisation. This involved carrying out independent research by reading and collecting a range of information from books, articles and websites. The class then explored a range of examples and annotated them before presenting their own fact files. Children drew on their grammar learning and included features such as parenthesis, subjunctive form, formal address, use of the passive voice and technical language.

In Reading this half term Team DB have been working on the text the The Hobbit by J. R. Tolkien as their text driver. They class have studied extracts of the book as well as various linked texts to deepen their understanding of key themes and different genres of writing. They have studied various fiction and non-fiction texts during the half term, helping them to develop their understanding of new vocabulary in context, thus they have tried hard to implement this language into their writing.  The class continued to build on improving their fluency when reading through the support of text marking. This has allowed the children to read the text fluently and ensure that everyone reads it in the same way. Following their work on fluency and vocabulary, the class have then interrogated the text to answer questions which require deeper thought, using the Point and Evidence technique to be able to do so. This has in turn helped the children answer questions based upon the VIPERS skills, where the questions can be inference, retrieval, summary or explanation based. 

This half term in Reading, Team NH have focused on The Boy in the Tower as their central text, as well as diaries and letters of people stuck in a similar situation to Ade, the main character - he is no longer allowed to go outside and the rest of the city have been evacuated after an invasive plant, the Blucher, has taken over. Throughout the term, the class have continued to expand their vocabulary and have even used some of this new language to support their writing! They have continued to develop their fluency and pace of reading, with a focus on emphasizing different words and how this can change the meaning of a sentence. Team NH also focused on the poem Breathe by Becky Hemsley and continued to develop their fluency by performing a part of the poem in small groups.  Throughout each text, Team NH have also focused on different characters' emotions and using evidence of their actions and words to inform their judgements. 

This half term in Reading, Team LF's class text has been The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. They have thoroughly enjoyed following the adventures of the Pevensie children as they journey through the magical land of Narnia. Through their reading, they have explored key themes such as courage, loyalty, sacrifice and good versus evil, while developing their understanding of character, setting and plot. Throughout the term, they have engaged with a range of fiction, non-fiction and poetry linked to the class text, helping them to deepen their understanding and broaden their vocabulary. The team have discussed unfamiliar words and explored how their meanings can change depending on the context in which they are used. Team LF have also focused on improving reading fluency through text-marking techniques, to read accurately and with greater expression. They have examined texts in greater depth through a variety of comprehension activities including inference, prediction and explanation questions, requiring pupils to justify their answers using evidence from the text. Team LF have also developed questioning skills by both answering and creating their own comprehension questions.

This half term, the children in Team CB have continued to work incredibly hard to refine their reading skills. The children are thoroughly enjoying the whole class reading approach and are becoming true expert, independent readers. The text that they have based their learning on this half term has been linked to Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. The text have covered a range of fiction, non-fiction and poetry as linked texts to aid their writing outcomes also. Children are now showing their ability to learn and understand new vocabulary in context and quickly skim to locate these words in the text. Their ability to read with fluency and emphasis has improved greatly with children confidently pausing at appropriate points and recognising which words need to be projected when reading aloud. The class have also shown a growing understanding of interrogating a text to find evidence which supports them in answering Big Ding questions. Their comprehension skills continue to be developed through the use of practical based tasks designed to draw on skills such as prediction, inference, summarising and explanation.

This half term in Team CH, many of the children have continued to strengthen and develop their reading skills. Some of the class have continued to access their phonics where they have worked hard to secure knowledge of different phonemes when reading a range of books with increasing fluency and automaticity. 
Some children have now progressed off of the Read, Write Inc programme and have been working to explore and interrogate the text James and the Giant Peach through whole class reading. The group have worked hard to develop a wider range of vocabulary through instruction and identify this within the text. They have read with increasing fluency and automaticity thinking carefully about stopping for pauses and reading with growing emphasis. They have then spent time as a class working together to answer Big Ding questions through analysing the text deeply.

This half term, children have continued to develop their reading skills through the Read Write Inc. programme and a range of engaging texts. During their reading sessions, they have read books closely matched to their phonics knowledge, helping them to build fluency, accuracy and confidence as readers. The children have applied their understanding of Set 3 sounds and spelling patterns when reading, using their knowledge of ‘Special Friends’, Fred Talk and ‘Read the Word’ strategies to tackle unfamiliar vocabulary. Children have explored a range of fiction, non-fiction and poetry texts. and have developed comprehension skills by discussing characters’ thoughts and feelings, making predictions, retrieving information from the text and explaining their ideas using evidence. Partner discussions remain an important part of our reading sessions, giving children opportunities to share their ideas, answer questions and deepen their understanding of what they have read.

In reading, Team AC children have continued their learning in the Read Write Inc. programme, building on the strong foundations from the Autumn and Spring term. Most children are now confident with all their speed sounds and have been using these to read and write words more confidently. They all showed their progress with their fabulous Phonics Screen Check results. They continued to develop their blending skills to read green words and sentences with increasing fluency as well as recognising and reading red words by sight. Through daily phonics sessions and Talk through stories,  the children have continued to grow in confidence as readers and writers.