Intent
At St Benedict’s Catholic Primary we foster the unique gifts of each child to be a confident, fluent reader, who reads widely to enrich their vocabulary; love reading so that they write well; think more and so that each day they know more. By reading more, our children will develop a knowledge of themselves and open their minds to the world in which they live.
Implementation
Our strategies for ensuring that children are successful readers are as follows:
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We allocate time in the school day for the children to listen to an adult read
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Teachers choose challenging texts through class reads and carefully planned whole class shared reading sessions.
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Consistent, quality first teaching of systematic synthetic phonics in EYFS and KS1.
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Use of the school library to expose the children to a wide variety of texts and foster a love of reading.
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Challenging texts are used to inform and inspire writing, as well as for the children to show their understanding through a variety of VIPERS, Comprehension activities and discussions.
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Using a range of challenging texts, carefully planned into English lessons (and across the curriculum where appropriate) to inspire work.
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Children are encouraged to read a wide variety of genres. Each classroom in KS1 and KS2 has a well-resourced reading corner.
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Each child will read with an adult at least once a week in school. The adult will make a comment to inform parents of the progress is making and what they need to work on. Children reading decodable readers are asked to read the same book three times in order to develop confidence and fluency.
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In KS1, group reading sessions take place to work on fluency, prosody and comprehension.
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In KS2 children are given time in the day to read to their Accelerated Reader book. This time is used by the teacher to feedback and work with children based on their reading, current scores and needed interventions. Each child is seen by the teacher at least once a week.
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The children’s progress is closely monitored through teacher assessment and the use of accelerated reader and interventions put in place to support those falling behind to keep up and provide challenge for those exceeding age-related expectation.
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In KS2, children take part in shared reading each day as a whole class. The focus of these sessions are enjoyment and fluency. The teachers carefully plan which children will be reading which part in order to make challenging texts accessible and enjoyable to all children in the class. This is also an opportunity for the adult to model reading.
Impact
We want our children to build competence in word reading to be able to read fluently, with confidence by the end of their primary education, as well as develop a motivation for reading and for them to develop good comprehension skills and a vast vocabulary to give them access to the best opportunities possible. Through carefully chosen texts, children are able to explore and discover experiences beyond their doorstep. As they develop their own interest in books, a deep love of literature across a range of genres, cultures and styles is enhanced.
We aspire that all our children become fluent, confident and able readers, who can access a range of texts for pleasure and enjoyment, as well as be able to apply their reading skills to unlock learning across the curriculum.
Useful Information
