Early Reading
“Pupils and children love books and are confident and fluent readers. A positive attitude to reading is promoted throughout the school”
Ofsted 2019
Our English curriculum offers a range of ways for teaching reading as we appreciate that children learn to read in different ways.
Letters and Sounds, a comprehensive phonics strategy is introduced in Reception and is worked continuously across the Lower School (Reception – Year 2). For some children a whole word method is better as they may be taking a little longer to blend sounds and decode words phonetically.
Parents and teachers must work together to give all children the support and encouragement they need to develop their own reading interest and ability. Children are heard to read individually by their class teacher and should read each night at home. Reading and discussing stories in the early years should be in a fun and relaxed atmosphere.
Reading Year 3-6
A greater emphasis is placed at this stage upon independent reading and a wide variety of fiction and non-fiction texts are read including narrative texts, play scripts, poetry and newspaper
reports.
Pupils are heard read by an adult (Teacher, Teaching Assistant or Reading Parent) once a week and at least every two weeks by their class teacher and follow an integrated reading scheme. A daily reading record book is provided and completed by both teachers and parents. The children visit the school library regularly and have access to a wide range of books within their classroom.
In comprehension lessons children learn to understand the meaning from texts in a variety of ways. They are taught how to locate information, infer meaning and to articulate their opinions, based on the passage provided.
Above all, a positive attitude to reading is promoted throughout the school.