Reading
St Peter’s of Eaton Square C of E Primary School
Reading Curriculum Overview
Intent
At St Peter’s teaching of reading is one of the most important aspects in our provision for all the children. We understand that being able to read provides children with access to the world around them and supports their ability to learn and develop in all other areas. However, reading also brings a joy and a sense of astonishment that cannot be achieved in any other way; children can discover new worlds, reflect on the past and explore emotions from the point of view of wonderful diversity of our world.
Implementation
Early Reading and Phonics
In EYFS nursery children experience early phonics through daily Phonics sessions. While the Reception children’s phonological awareness and phonic knowledge is developed using the ReadWriteInc programme through explicit daily phonics teaching.
We start by teaching phonics to the children in the Reception class. This means that they learn how to ‘read’ the sounds in words and how those sounds can be written down. This is essential for reading, but it also helps children learn to spell well. We teach the children simple ways of remembering these sounds and letters.
The children also practise reading (and spelling) what we call ‘tricky words’, such as ‘once,’ ‘have,’ ‘said’ and ‘where’.
The children practise their reading with books that match the phonics and the ‘tricky words’ they know. They start thinking that they can read, and this does wonders for their confidence.
The teachers read to the children, too, so the children get to know all sorts of stories, poetry and information books. They learn many more words this way and it also helps their writing.
Developing A Love of Reading
We would like children to develop a life-long love of reading and to experience a range of diverse, quality children’s literature - that they can carry across their life. We want EVERY child to fulfil their potential and achieve to their fullest, and we know that reading for pleasure supports this goal.
To help achieve this, each year group have a ‘Favourite Five’ selection of books that they read each half term - 30 favourite books over the year. This collection of books, across the school is our ‘Reading Spine’. The books have been carefully chosen to represent classics, traditional tales, books relevant to our time and importantly, books that are a true reflection and celebration of diversity.
Within our classrooms you will see...
- RWI Phonics taught for all children across EYFS and KS1 with all adults across the school trained to deliver personalised learning for individual children using this scheme
- Reading for Pleasure books changed twice a week across the school
- KS1 sent home with levelled books, Phonics group books and Phonics book bag book once a week
- KS2 sent home with 2 levelled reading books every week
- Home Reading Records (EYFS, KS1 and KS2)
- Whole Class Story times
- D.E.A.R. - Drop Everything And Read
- Reading Tasting Sessions across KS1 and KS2 half termly
- Year 5 and Year 6 have Reading Road Maps which added to every week
- Cracking Comprehension scheme across KS1 and KS2
- RWI Phonics interventions for all children across the school who would benefit
Impact
We use various ways to find out how the children are getting on in reading. We use the information to decide what reading group they should be in. Your child will work with children who are at the same reading level as him or her. Children will move to a different group if they are making faster progress than the others. Your child will have one-to-one support if we think he or she needs some extra help to keep up.
In the summer term, the government asks us to do a phonics check of all the Year 1 children. That gives us extra information about their progress.