Keyham Barton’s Reading Curriculum Statement
Intent
At Keyham Barton, reading is a top priority and is a key driver for our curriculum. It is our intention to ensure that by the end of their primary education, all pupils are able to read fluently, and with confidence, in any subject in their forthcoming secondary education.
We therefore intend to encourage all pupils to read widely across both fiction and non-fiction to:
- Develop knowledge of themselves and the world in which they live;
- to establish an appreciation and love of reading;
- to gain knowledge across the curriculum, and
- to develop their comprehension skills.
We are committed to providing vocabulary-rich reading material across the curriculum.
Implement
The systematic teaching of phonics has a high priority throughout Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1. We using RWI resources. Our staff teach learners the relationship between sounds and the written spelling patterns, or graphemes, which represent them.
All children in Reception, KS1 and, where necessary, KS2 have daily phonics sessions where they participate in speaking, listening, spelling and reading activities that are matched to their current needs.
The teachers draw upon observations and continuous assessment to ensure children are
stretched and challenged and to identify children who may need additional support. Timely
intervention is planned for those children who are working below expected levels as soon as
their needs are identified.
We recognise that systematic, high quality phonics teaching is essential, but additional skills
and opportunities are needed for children to achieve the goal of being a well-rounded reader,
namely comprehension.
Reading is also developed during guided reading, using high quality texts and focused skill teaching. Strong links are made between reading and writing. Children read and enjoy high quality fiction and non-fiction texts, which (where possible) are linked to their topics across the curriculum.
All children read aloud daily during phonics or guided reading; in addition to this they read at
least once more a week with teachers, teaching assistants and reading volunteers; the focus
being on the lowest 20%.
In whole class guided reading sessions, children develop their key reading skills of decoding,
Vocabulary, Inference, Prediction, Explanation, Retrieval and Summarising (VIPERS).
Children also continue to develop their reading fluency skills, building upon their phonics
knowledge and skills.
Reading at home is encouraged and promoted through class incentives. Children are also encouraged to choose their own book to share with their family at home. Children work through our school reading scheme – these are levelled books which match the child’s current reading ability. We expect family members at home to read these books with their child daily and make comments in their child’s reading record.
Impact
Through the teaching of systematic phonics, our aim is for children to become fluent and
confident word readers by the end of KS1.
As a Year 6 reader, transitioning into secondary school, we aspire that children are fluent,
confident and able readers, who can access a range of texts for pleasure and enjoyment, as
well as use their reading skills to unlock learning and all areas of the curriculum.
We firmly believe that reading is the key to all learning and so the impact of our reading
curriculum goes beyond the results of the statutory assessments.