Reading and phonics
Intent
At Bretherton Endowed Primary School our aim is for every child to become a fluent reader. We want children to become fluent readers in order for them to reach age related expectations or make accelerated progress from their starting point. As well as this we want children to develop a love for reading and read for pleasure on a regular basis.
Our curriculum is designed to be ambitious and tailored to our pupils and their needs. It is designed to include a variety of approaches to enable the pupils to make good progress.
The aims of teaching reading in our school are to develop pupils who:
- show high levels of achievement and exhibit very positive attitudes towards reading;
- rapidly acquire a secure knowledge of letters and sounds and make sustained progress in learning to read fluently;
- read easily and fluently with good understanding across both fiction and non-fiction;
- acquire a wider vocabulary;
- participate in the teaching of phonics knowledge, skills and understanding in a systematic and enjoyable way;
- develop their reading in all subjects to support their acquisition of knowledge;
- are confident, independent readers with a love of reading;
- read for pleasure both at home and school on a regular basis and enjoy being read to;
- through their reading develop culturally, emotionally, intellectually, socially and spiritually;
- develop good comprehension drawing from their linguistic knowledge.
- see reading as a lifelong skill, something to treasure and not to fear or be seen as a chore.
At Bretherton Endowed school we strive for children to be a ‘Primary Literate Pupil’
By the end of year 6. we aim for a child to be able to:
- read and write with confidence, fluency and understanding, orchestrating a range of independent strategies to self-monitor and correct.
- have an interest in books and read for enjoyment
- have an interest in words, their meanings; developing a growing vocabulary in spoken and written forms.
- understand a range of text types and genres – be able to write in a variety of styles and forms appropriate to the situation.
- be developing the powers of imagination, inventiveness and critical awareness.
- have a suitable technical vocabulary to articulate their responses.
- progress to the next stage of education and read for life.
Process in creating our curriculum
Phonics
In Reception and Key Stage 1 each child takes part in a daily phonics lesson of 20-30 minutes. The children are taught in a mastery approach. By the end of Reception each child is expected to have achieved Phase 4; by the end of Year 1 each child is expected to have achieved Phase 5; by the end of Year 2 each child is expected to have achieved Phase 6. Phonics sessions are interactive and fun! The children are taught and read books from our newly purchased phonics scheme: Monster Phonics. Further information regarding phonics can be located by clicking on the link below. All teachers follow the phonics scheme.
Key action for year 2024-2026
- Develop fluency and comprehension to support the improvement of reading stamina ‘Reading for Stamina’ Caroline Bilsden To develop a reading charter to support all pupils as readers
- Work with families to enable them to support children with reading at home
- Use the EEF document ‘ https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/education-evidence/teaching-learning-toolkit/reading-comprehension-strategies ‘ supports the lowest 20% of readers. To ensure LA pupils/PPG pupils/identified pupils are supported in guided reading allowing them to keep the pace of other pupils in the cohort.
- To ensure guided reading throughout school is of high quality with LAPS being used to support and monitor/assess
- Reading for pleasure embedded within curriculum timetable. To ensure the quality of texts in class are suitable using the reading spines to support text choice.
- To ensure the transition for readers from Class 2 to Class 3 allows pupils to develop fluency away from phonics texts.
- To use aspects of the EEF documents:
‘Improving Literacy in Key Stage 1’ EEF
‘Improving Literacy in Key Stage 2’ EEF
Files to Download
