Reading
At St. Cuthbert’s, reading is a top priority throughout our pupils’ time with us. It is our intention to ensure that as soon as children join us they are instilled with the skills to read and a love of books and reading. By the end of their primary education our intention is that all pupils can read fluently and with confidence right across the curriculum and that they have opportunities to explore personal preferences and choices. We ensure that reading is a joyful and valued experience and that pupils have access to rich text and adults who model excellent reading, instilling a love of literature.
We intend all children to leave St. Cuthbert’s with a rich vocabulary that provides them with the ability to use and mould language for a range of purpose.
We encourage all pupils to read widely across both fiction, poetry and non-fiction to develop:
– knowledge of themselves and the world in which they live;
– an appreciation and love of reading;
– knowledge across the curriculum;
– comprehension skills.
Early Reading
Early reading and phonics are a central part of learning at St. Cuthbert’s and we ensure that we have reading books that fully match our phonics scheme as well as a range of rich, shared reading books for children to enjoy with adults. Parents can find out more using our information leaflet below and through looking at our phonics page.
Reading after phonics
Once children have mastered phonics, they move onto a rage of banded reading books which are matched to their ability. We also have a varied collection of books and monthly magazine subscriptions in each class library and access to a whole school library which is equipped with a wide variety of fiction, non fiction and poetry. Pupils are encouraged to take books they are interested in, not only books that are in their given band.
All classes from Year 2 take part in whole class reading sessions which focus on skills of fluency and comprehension based around the texts or themes they are using in class. Teachers model reading effectively and pupils enjoy story times in class and the library.
Children in Year 5 and 6 take part in the Reading Plus programme which helps pupils improve their fluency and comprehension on a more individualised level. You can find out more about the programme here.
Enrichment
We have regular ‘little library’ clubs, take part in World Book Day each year and enjoy regular visits from local author Adam Bushnell, who shares his love of reading and writing stories with us.
Phonics
Phonics Lead Teacher in school is Mrs Wilkinson
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High quality phonics teaching lies at the heart of our early education, securing the crucial skills of word recognition that, once mastered, enable children to read fluently and automatically. Once children are fluent readers, they are able to concentrate on the meaning of the text and make the shift between learning to read and reading to learn. Reading is seen as a skill so essential to access the world around them.
In school we follow the Sounds-Write programme to teach phonics. We aim to ensure that all children are fluent readers by the time they leave KS1. All adults involved with teaching phonics have attended a 4 day training programme on the delivery of Sounds Write. Our reading scheme in Reception and Year One is entirely decodable, using Sounds-Write texts and Phonics Dandelion Readers.
Phonics & Spelling
The Sounds-Write programme is used to teach phonics and spelling. All pupils in Reception begin the initial code in the September of their Reception year. They continue on their phonics journey throughout Year One and into Year Two, with the aim of leaving KS1 as fluent readers, secure in word building and recognition.
We explicitly teach the 3 skills of:
- Blending
- Segmenting
- Phoneme manipulation (sound swapping)
The children are taught to decode and encode by understanding 4 clear concepts:
- Letters are symbols that represent sounds that they sa
- Sounds can be spelt using 1,2,3 and 4 letters – f, oa, air, eigh
- The same sound can be spelt in different ways – bone, coat, toe, window, shoulder
- The same spelling can represent different sounds – bread, eat, great
All adults in school use the same consistent, concise language about sounds and spelling when teaching. We say that the letters spell sounds they do not say sounds. We use phrases such as:
In this word…
If this was…this would be…
This can spell…what else can it spell?
Say the sounds and read the word.
Where should children be at this point?
Where are they going to next?
What sounds do children know?
Consistency of time and resources are applied very effectively to support the teaching of daily phonics. The discrete teaching of phonics and reading has become a natural and everyday part of every aspect of the curriculum.
Progress in phonics is monitored half termly, including lesson visits and pupil progress discussions. Progress of all pupils is tracked using Phonics Tracker.
Pupils in EYFS and KS1 are given additional support as required to master their phonics. Pupils in KS2, who have gaps in the phonics, continue to be supported through timely and effective intervention and decodable readers for older pupils.