Reading and Phonics:
We value reading as a key life skill, and we aspire for our pupils to become lifelong readers. We believe reading is key for academic success and therefore teach reading in the following ways:
- Children are taught phonics through a combination of strong, high quality, discrete phonics teaching combined with regular, daily opportunities to develop reading skills. We follow Twinkl Phonics, which is a Department for Education (DfE) validated, Systematic Synthetic Phonics programme (SSP), that provides everything we need to help the children to work towards achieving their goals in reading and writing.
- In Reception and year 1, children read their Rhino reader books to an adult. The Rhino reader books are the reading books which match the Twinkl phonics scheme. They are fully decodable which means that the books the children are given should match up exactly to the phonics that they have learnt. Books shouldn’t contain any letter sounds not yet taught. Children take part in whole class Guided Reading lessons from year 2. Guided Reading is taught throughout the week. During Guided Reading children are exposed to a range of different texts and focus on specific learning objectives.
- We use Herts for learning and the CLPE Power of Reading schemes in school. All English learning is centred around a book therefore exposing children to high-quality age-appropriate texts. Both Herts for learning and the Power of Reading involve the children reading, exploring, analysing and listening to texts.
- Children are read to by their teachers daily. This may be through Power of Reading in English or ‘Bonkers about Books’ in the afternoon. This could be a book that the teacher recommends to the class or a recommendation from a child. We endeavour to have quiet reading time to end the day where possible.
- Each classroom has a book case and KS1 classes have a reading area. This is filled with books suitable for their reading age and children are encouraged to choose a book to read in and out of school.
- We have a well-stocked library which children are able to use. All classes have a library slot and we have an after-school library session for children and their parents every Monday. Children are encouraged to borrow books from the library to read at school or at home.
- Each classroom will have a selection of non-fiction books in their classroom which are directly linked to their current topic or Science. This offers children opportunities to apply their reading skills across the curriculum.
- We run intervention programs and provide extra 1:1 sessions for children identified as needing extra support with their reading.
- Teachers use Rising Stars Assessments half termly to identify gaps and inform future planning. In KS1 we also assess Phonic knowledge at the end of each teaching sequence.
