English Reading
Intent
Reading opens the door to learning. At Rushton CE First School we believe it is fundamental to get children off to a flying start in reading right from the beginning. A child who reads a lot will become a fluent reader. A fluent reader will be able to read more challenging material. A child who can read more challenging material is a child who will learn. The more a child learns, the more he or she will want to find out. Our intention is for our children to become fluent and capable readers and to foster a love of reading through a range of carefully selected texts.
Implement
To implement this, we use a government approved synthetic phonics programme (SPP), Bug Club Phonics, to teach children the fundamental skills of phonics for reading. Children start to explore sounds (Nursery) and will cover the six aspects to develop their speaking and listening skills and lay the foundations for the phonic work which starts in Reception.
Systematic synthetic phonics teaches letter sounds very rapidly, explicitly showing children how to build up words with letters from the start so they are able to blend sounds in printed words by the end of their Reception year. This includes learning ‘tricky’ words, as well as decodable words, which include the specific sounds children are learning. Once the children reach KS1 the skills taught in the foundation stage are embedded and the children continue to build knowledge of, and consolidate, the 40+ phonemes. These skills allow the children to then become fluent readers. Children are taught in phonics groups that are regularly reviewed to support children ‘keeping up’ with learning. Where necessary, targeted support and interventions are put in place to support children with ‘catching up’. Children have weekly guided reading sessions and online access to carefully matched, decodable text from the Bug Club library through which children practice their phonics learning both in school, and at home.
Through our school curriculum from EYFS to KS2 we try to foster a love of reading by making books a key feature in our classrooms. In EYFS children share texts with an adult every day and reading areas are features of all classrooms to encourage children to explore and choose books they are interested in. Children also choose books from the mobile library van that visits the school. In KS1 and KS2, we make meaningful text choices to support our topics. The texts are rich in vocabulary and support our cross-curricular learning, bringing the text to life and fostering that excitement for books and stories.
In KS1 and KS2, children continue to use Bug Club resources for guided reading and comprehension lessons, exploring vocabulary, and developing the key comprehension strategies that support children to become confident, fluent and conscientious readers.
Impact
The children at Rushton CE First will become fluent readers by accessing daily phonics sessions. They will be able to decode using their phonic knowledge and recognise tricky words. Children will therefore develop into enthusiastic and confident readers who can understand a wide range of texts. Children will choose to read for pleasure because they have a genuine love of literature, language and communication. They will be supported at home with their reading and this will allow the children to practice their reading skills.