Reading and Phonics at St. Edmund's

Reading and Phonics

Curriculum Intent Statement

At St Edmund’s Catholic Primary School, we believe reading unlocks all learning therefore we are dedicated to ensuring all our children have access to a high-quality Reading provision which in turn develops children’s love of reading.

We aim to inspire an appreciation of our rich and varied literary heritage and a habit of reading widely and often. We recognise the importance of nurturing a culture where children take pride in their reading. At St Edmund’s, we give high priority to the teaching of Reading as we firmly believe it is key to wider learning. We endeavour to foster a culture that loves literature, where children love to read and love to be read to. A love that we hope they will carry with them through the rest of their lives beyond St Edmund’s school gates.

At St Edmunds:

• Children in EYFS and Year 1 are taught early reading and phonics through the accredited program 'Little Wandle - Letters and Sounds Revised'.

• The children are taught phonics on a daily basis, this will develop their phonological knowledge and the skills of blending and segmenting.

• Children learning phonics complete the 'Little Wandle, three reads' weekly.  The children read the book three times during the week at school focusing on decoding, prosody and comprehension.  The children are then encouraged to read the same book at home using Collins Ebooks.  The book will be selected based on the children's phonic and sight word knowledge.  

• Children are assessed every six weeks, those children who are not at age-related expectations will be provided with intervention in the form of either small group work (three times per week) or daily 1 to 1.

•  In Year Two, children learn to read within a guided group and will complete small-group comprehension to develop their deduction and inference skills.

• Whilst in KS2, the children continue to develop their reading ability within a weekly teacher-led guided reading session and will complete independent comprehension to develop their deduction and inference skills.

• To extend KS2 children's ability to read fluently the school has implemented 'Reading Plus'.  This will encourage children to read and develop their comprehension skills.

• Those children in KS2 who have not reached aged-related expectations in phonics complete the Little Wandle - Rapid Phonics Program.

• Our reading scheme is Big Cat, which is fully decodable and directly linked to the Little Wandle phonics program.

• We use Big Cat progression texts for high-interest lower ability readers.

• All those children who are completing the Little Wandle Phonics program (EYFS & Year One) take a pleasure for reading book pack of six books home each half term.  The parents will be encouraged to read and dicsuss the stories with the children.  Parents are encouraged to re-read books to the children so they have a number of stories to draw upon when writing their own.

• All those children who have completed the Little Wandle phonics stage will take home a school-home reader and a pleasure for reading book from the library.

• Children will be encouraged to use the school library after lunch, a member of staff will be present in the library to advise the children on their choice of book.

• Each day there will be a designated reading time, this is either in the form of the teacher reading to the class or the children reading their pleasure for reading book.

• Each classroom has a reading area that contains a book box with 10-15 books including non-fiction, fiction and poetry relating to the current class topic.  This will be changed every half term.