We are Readers!
Reading Curriculum Intent
At St. Martin's we recognise the importance of reading as a driving force for children's learning and believe that 'once a child can read they can do anything!'
We strive for all children to foster a lifelong love of reading and become enthusiastic, confident and fluent readers. Therefore, reading is at the heart of everything we do. We aim to provide both a rich reading environment and curriculum, exposing children to high quality texts across all curriculum areas. We want our children to read for enjoyment and also be able to use books confidently and accurately in order to find out about the world and develop a deeper understanding. We encourage children to develop an interest in words and their meanings, in turn providing them with the word power needed to be successful speakers and writers, so that they may function in society as literate readers for life.
Reading in EYFS and KS1
Pre-school
At St. Martin’s, children start their Phonics learning from day one. Phonics teaching and learning in Nursery focuses on ensuring the children are “Read Write Inc. Ready” (RWIR) and therefore ready for their learning in Reception class.
At St. Martin’s. we do this through interactive and focused adult led sessions which help the children to hear, say and use the sounds they will need. This provides a foundation which enables children to become fluent readers as they move into Reception and Year One. Reading for Pleasure is part of every day teaching and learning at the school, therefore we ensure the importance of reading to and with a child is modelled in the setting and shared with the children’s parents. A focus on learning Nursery Rhymes is also at the heart of phonics Nursery teaching and learning.
Read Write Inc. terminology and resources are introduced in the environment and by adults working with the children. We introduce ‘Fred Talk’, where children learn to blend segmented sounds and adults model the language needed when forming sounds correctly in writing. Later, we introduce ‘Fred Fingers’ to help children with identifying the sounds in words.
In the summer term before children start in Reception class, they will be introduced to the first set of sounds needed in Read Write Inc. formal phonics lessons, which begin on day one of their Reception class.
Reception and KS1
Children in Reception and KS1 follow the ‘Read Write Inc’ phonics programme. This offers a lively, vigorous approach to learning synthetic phonics. We place great emphasis on children mastering phonics in year Reception and year 1 to enable them to become skilful readers. Through a fast paced and rigorously assessed
approach children are exposed to a phonics curriculum
based on repetition, over teaching and a rich diet of literature.
Reading is closely linked to phonics development; once children know the letter sounds they will take home a reading book to practise reading at home, this book will be clearly matched to their reading and phonics level.
Children have daily story time sessions with staff and parents are encouraged to share a wide range of books with their child at home through our book for bedtime scheme.
During years R, 1 and 2 parents will be invited to phonics workshops and sessions to learn the sounds and how they blend together for reading.
At the same time your child will learn to form their letters using lively rhyme, ready for writing words and then sentences.
Once a child can read they can do anything so it is so important that they can decode words by the end of year 1. This means we can then focus on reading for meaning and comprehension skills from year 2 onwards encouraging them to read at an appropriate pace and with expression.
Extending children’s Vocabulary is a key area that as a school we are working to develop.
The RWI approach is taught considering the 5 Ps:
Praise – Children learn quickly in a positive climate.
Pace – A good pace is the key to each session to ensure all children are engaged and on task. Purpose – Every part of the lesson has a specific purpose.
Passion – This is a very prescriptive programme. It is the energy, enthusiasm and passion that teachers put into the lesson that bring the teaching and learning to life!
Participation – A strong feature of RWI lessons is partner work and the partners ‘teaching’ each other.
Talk through stories
In EYFS and Year 1 we follow Read Write Inc's 'Talk through Stories'
Read Write Inc's 'Talk through Stories' is designed to extend and deepen children’s vocabulary so that they can understand the books they will be able to read for themselves. Children get to know stories really well and deepen their vocabulary while enjoying engaging and high quality texts.
Reading in KS2
At KS2, phonics knowledge from KS1 is built upon. Children follow on the school reading scheme as they move into KS2 and choose reading books from the appropriate level. These books are taken home for children to read. To help your child progress, listening them to read every night for at least 10 minutes is extremely beneficial. When listening to your child read it is important that the children’s understanding of what they are reading is also focussed on.
In Key Stage 2 teaching comprehension will now take precedence. Teachers will support children with their comprehension skills through the use of reciprocal reading strategies.
Our pupils will develop a lifelong love of reading and become passionate about reading.
Through the specific teaching of reading skills, we support children and their reading journeys so that they
can decode, understand and discuss texts fully.
Reciprocal teaching refers to an instructional activity in which students become the teacher in small group reading sessions. Teachers model, then help students learn to guide group discussions using four strategies: summarizing, question generating, clarifying, and predicting. Once students have learned the strategies, they take turns assuming the role of teacher in leading a dialogue about what has been read.
Teachers select texts to read with their classes using the Pie Corbett reading spine and the Five Plagues of reading spine.
Our Reading Pathway
Reading for Pleasure
At St Martin’s we actively encourage reading for pleasure and recognise it as a core part of every child’s education, regardless of their background or attainment. We make reading a key part of our curriculum and expose pupils to a wide range of texts in a variety of different situations.
We want every child to become a lifelong reader. The national Literacy Trust has noted that becoming a lifelong reader is based on developing a deep love of reading. There is a growing body of evidence which illustrates the importance of reading for pleasure for both educational purposes as well as personal development (cited in Clark and Rumbold, 2006). As well as this, reading enjoyment has been reported as more important for children’s educational success than their family’s socio-economic status (OECD, 2002)
We encourage children's Reading for Pleasure through;
Access to a wide range of texts/books
Recognition of the teacher's role in promoting Reading for Pleasure in the classroom.
Activities to Promote Reading for Pleasure including our class readers and reading challenge
Links with home
Use of the school library
Reading for Pleasure accross the curriculum.
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The Reading subject lead is Mrs Monks