Our Reading Curriculum

At St George’s we believe that reading is the most important skill that we can teach our children. The ability to read, to decode text and understand what it says, allows children to access a whole new world of learning. Developing a child’s ability to read, not only enables them to access all other parts of the curriculum but embeds in them a love of books that will give them a life time of happiness.

“There are many little ways to enlarge your child’s world. Love of books is the best of all.” – Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

INTENT

At St George’s we believe that a high quality English curriculum should develop children’s love of reading, writing and discussion. We aim to inspire an appreciation of our rich and varied literary heritage and a habit of reading widely and often. We believe that all children should have access to a wide variety of books from different genres and different periods of history.  We also believe that all children should have the opportunity to become the best reader that they can be and to develop a love of reading, whilst also developing their comprehension skills. Our curriculum closely follows the aims of the National Curriculum for English 2014.

IMPLEMENTATION

Early reading

At St George’s the children’s reading journey begins in the Early Years. Here the children begin to learn their phonic sounds as the building blocks to decoding words. They are immersed in a range of fiction and non-fiction books in the classroom during shared reading time, story time and in continuous provision.

Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 follow the Read Write Inc. Synthetic Phonics scheme. This program includes 4 phonic sessions per week, which are grouped according to ability and are very fluid in order to meet the needs of all children. Within each session the children also learn to blend sounds to form words, write the sounds and words using the correct letter formation and engage in a guided reading session with the teacher. We also run individual and small group booster sessions to help close the gap for children who are in danger of falling behind.

Reading for meaning

In Key Stage1 & Key Stage 2 the children have a weekly reading lesson where they are given the opportunity to explore a variety of quality texts, including books from both modern and classic authors and different books by the same author. They develop their comprehension skills through discussion of the text and planned follow up comprehension activities, based on the text. All children take part in planned Guided Reading sessions each week with the teacher. These sessions allow for targeted questioning by the teacher and are also used to assess and track individual progress.  In KS2 children who still need one-to-one reading receive it, following the Oxford Reading Tree scheme.  All children also have access to the school library.

IMPACT

All children will leave St George’s as confident, fluent readers, able to access all areas of the curriculum and fired with a love of reading that will enrich and reward their lives.

They will have been immersed in a rich reading culture that will enable them to become enthusiastic readers and writers who are confident to take risks in their reading and writing, and love to discuss and share their ideas.

Children will be well prepared for National Phonics Screening at the end of Year 1, end of year expectations and National Assessment Tests at the end of both key stages.

For more information regarding RWI Phonics, please speak to Mrs Hutchinson.

For more information regarding the Reading curriculum, please speak to Mrs Thomas.