Reading:
Intent
We value reading as a key life skill and are dedicated to ensuring that our children develop a lifelong love and passion for reading by exposing them to a wide-range of high-quality genres and authors. We believe that reading contributes to the whole school curriculum and is key to academic success. The pupils in our school will be taught in a safe, secure and stimulating environment enabling them all to flourish as readers. The teaching of reading in our school is coherently planned through the use of our systemic, synthetic phonics programme (Little Wandle – Letters and Sounds Revised). We support the learning journeys of all children, through a continuous cycle of planning, teaching and assessment to ensure that by the time our children leave us, they are competent and confident readers, ready for the next stage in their life.
Implementation
All members of our teaching team are well trained to deliver: high-quality phonics sessions, guided and whole-class reading sessions, one-to-one reading sessions, shared reading and interventions/catch-up where necessary. They respond and adapt teaching to ensure children are stretched and challenged and to identify those children who may require additional support. Our school houses high-quality texts and reading resources in a range of settings to ensure children have the resources and opportunities to apply and develop their reading skills.
Impact
Through the teaching of systemic, synthetic phonics, our aim is for our children to become fluent readers by the end of Year 1. This is evidenced through our phonics screening results in which our children always achieve very well in. From this, our children can focus on developing their fluency and comprehension as they move through the school. However, we firmly believe that reading is key to all learning and so the impact of our reading curriculum goes beyond the results of the statutory assessments. We promote reading for pleasure as part of our reading curriculum. Children speak positively about reading and enjoy reading as part of their daily lives. They relish in the idea of exploring a new book together or independently and understand the importance of reading as a lifelong skill.
