God gave them learning and skill in all literature and wisdom.

Daniel 1:1

At St Joseph’s, we believe that the teaching of reading is integral to a child’s understanding and appreciation of the world around them; a platform that allows our children to see beyond what they know, share in cultural experiences and develop the vocabulary they need to effectively express themselves. Our reading curriculum strives to foster a lifelong love of reading.  We cultivate the behaviours that they will need to be confident readers as they read frequently and widely using self-regulation strategies and discuss what they read. This curriculum is delivered through synthetic phonics, a linked approach to shared and guided reading, home reading, reading across the curriculum, regular opportunities for independent reading and hearing quality texts read aloud every day. All of these are essential components as they offer the range of opportunities needed to develop fluent, enthusiastic and critical readers.

 

It is important that children are motivated to read in school and at home regularly; when their reading opportunities increase, so does their fluency and stamina which in turn increases their enjoyment of reading. Therefore, the link between children’s motivation to read and reading for pleasure is reciprocal. Furthermore, we know that reading pleasure is beneficial not only for not only reading outcomes, but for wider learning enjoyment and mental wellbeing. Thus, we work hard to foster a love of independent reading and build communities of engaged readers. We understand the significance of parents and carers in supporting their children to develop both word reading and comprehension skills so we endeavour to build a home-school partnership which enables parents and carers to have the confidence to support their children with reading at home. Reading is at the very heart of our curriculum. We are committed to promoting a love for reading and not only giving children opportunities to read in English lessons, but in the wider curriculum too.

 

Our aims for reading are to:

• Instil children with a love of reading that lasts for their lifetime, share with them an enthusiasm for children’s literature and help children to recognise the value of reading as a life skill.
• Encourage children to become enthusiastic and reflective readers by introducing them to high quality books, from a variety of cultures and in a range of different styles and formats.
• Develop our children’s understanding of a variety of text types including non-fiction, fiction, poetry and drama.
• Develop children’s confidence, fluency, and independence when reading for different purposes.
• Develop children’s abilities to reflect on and have an interest in what they have read and the language and punctuation choices made by the author.
• Use drama and role-play, where appropriate, to immerse children in the text.
• Ensure our children have sound phonic awareness and use a phonics first approach to reading.
• Read widely across the curriculum

English Curriculum Map 

Early Reading and Phonics:

The systematic teaching of phonics has a high priority throughout Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1 using the Read, Write Inc phonics scheme. Our staff teach learners the relationship between sounds and written spelling patterns, or graphemes, which represent them.

All children in FS2 and KS1 take part in a phonics session four times a week in a small group setting. Additional phonics sessions are taught in small groups or on an individual basis where pupils participate in speaking, listening, spelling and reading activities that are matched to their targeted needs.

We carry out a baseline assessment as children enter EYFS and KS1. We continue to assess children’s phonics skills each half-term using phonics assessments in FS2, Year 1 and Year 2.

As well as this, teachers draw upon observations and continuous assessment to ensure children are stretched and challenged and to identify children who may require additional support. Timely intervention is planned for those children who are working below expected standard as soon as their needs are identified.

We recognise that systematic, high quality phonics teaching is essential, but additional skills and opportunities are required for children to achieve the goal of being a well-rounded reader. When pupils have completed the phonics programme and are secure word level readers, reading is developed during whole class and guided reading sessions, using high quality text and focused skill teaching. Strong links are made between reading and writing so that skills and strategies can develop between the two. Children read and enjoy high quality fiction, non-fiction and poetry, which are linked to topics across the curriculum where relevant.

Children who are unable to achieve the phonics expected standard will proceed to phonics intervention and reading support. Phonics or alternative interventions are continued in KS2 for those who need it including application practice with decodable reading books.

Whole Class Reading:

In Year 2 and Key Stage 2 classes plan for three whole class reading sessions a week, which focus on comprehension and fluency, usually based on the class novel or wider curriculum. During this lesson the teacher will read to the children as a model of expert fluency and prosody.  There will also be opportunities for guided and independent reading, where the children will have a chance to read a passage of text, rehearse and perfect their fluency with reading partners or with the whole class.  Discussion in these sessions centre around pace, pitch, punctuation, and understanding.

Vocabulary Focus:

Through phonics, spellings, and whole class reading, vocabulary linked to the text is a key element. Pupils look at root words to gather understanding of meaning, synonyms to build and wider their vocabulary bank and the type of vocabulary it is to gain an understanding of appropriate times to use it across the curriculum. Key vocabulary within text is reinforced daily across appropriate curriculum areas to ensure it becomes embed and children gain the ability to use within the spoken / written language as appropriate.

 Class Reads:

All classes experience daily class reads, for pleasure, to excite and engage children and to expose them to a range of genres.

Class read time is a time for pupils to hear a book read without interruption. At least once a week, reading sessions are specifically linked to whole class reads and focus on retrieving and inferring information from the text, discussing characters and plots, making predictions and summarising events and themes.

Text Choice:

Text chosen in each year group are carefully selected by class teachers in conjunction with the Reading subject lead.

Books and text (including non-fiction) are also selected linked to year group curriculum topics and class interests to give opportunities to build background knowledge and read for pleasure.

Text choice in Long-Term Plans cover: core text (linked to English topics) and complementary text to deepen understanding of themes, class reads, whole class reading text and text linked to topics across the curriculum.

Home Reading:

Reading at home is encouraged and promoted on a regular basis. Children learning within the phonics programme, Read Write Inc, take home a book matched directly to their current phonics level; they are also encouraged to choose an additional book to share with their family at home. Following this, children continue to work throughout the school reading scheme based on the Oxford Reading Tree books bands. These are levelled books that match a child’s word and comprehension level. Pupil’s take home books that are matched to their independent reading level to ensure they are able to practice fluency and understanding, whilst reading for enjoyment.

Once pupils have advanced from the reading scheme, they are able to choose books within their reading age ability. These books are chosen from the class / school library and reading ages are measured through NFER assessments each term. Book recommendations are given by class teachers, peers and school librarians to support children in finding books that interest and engage them.

The impact of the Reading curriculum at St Joseph’s Primary can be seen through:

• Our children’s enjoyment of reading
• Our children’s fluency when reading, including the use of expression
• Our children’s ability to read for meaning, allowing them to retell events, make justified predictions and provide evidence-based inferences
• Our children’s appreciation of a wide variety of authors and genres, and their ability to express justified preferences
• Our children’s ability to discuss an author’s use of language and the impact this has on the reader
• The wide vocabulary, including story language, used by the children in both their oral responses and written work
• The percentage of children working at Expected level or greater across the school
• The percentage of children working at Expected level or greater at the end of Year 2 and Year 6, when compared to local and national outcomes

God gave them learning and skill in all literature and wisdom.

Daniel 1:1

At St Joseph’s we ensure that we teach pupils to speak, read and write English fluently so that they can communicate their ideas and emotions to others and through their reading and listening, others can communicate with them. Developing pupils skills in reading will enable them to develop culturally, emotionally, intellectually, socially and spiritually and the literature, we immerse children in, will play a key role in such development. 

English Curriculum Map