Phonics and Reading
Phonics and Reading
Our Subject Leaders for Phonics and Reading are: Mrs G Neal & Mrs K Sowerby
Curriculum Statement
Intent
At Victoria Road Primary School, we believe that a quality Reading and Phonics curriculum should instil in children a love of reading that will last a lifetime and enable them to make effective contributions to society. Our rigorous and well-structured curriculum provides many purposeful opportunities for reading and discussion across all areas of the curriculum and we aim to ensure that all of our children are giving the learning opportunities to achieve their full potential . Giving pupils key skills in Reading and Phonics enables them to access material in all curriculum areas and provides a foundation for their learning throughout their time in school.
Implementation
Our Reading curriculum is designed to expose children to a range of high-quality texts. This, we believe, ensures that children develop a love of reading throughout a range of genres and develop a secure knowledge-base in English. The National Curriculum objectives for each year group are followed and this ensures progression in all key areas. Rigorous assessment and review will ensure that we are able to provide targeted support so that all children experience success in Reading.
Early reading is supported through the ‘success for all’ scheme. Regular training sessions ensure that staff are equipped to teach with the expertise and skills required to promote excellent progress as well as a love of reading. In KS2, once children have completed their phonics programme, they develop deeper reading skills through discreet reading lessons. Each class visit our school library and this provides them with reading material which promotes reading for enjoyment. Our core text approach to writing places reading as the base of our curriculum. Our spine is carefully designed to assure that children are reading a range of genre that is suitable to the needs of their age group. To ensure this progression, we have based our reading spine on ‘The Five Plagues of the Developing Reader’ from ‘Reading Reconsidered’ by Doug Lemov. As a school who prioritise the love of reading, children have access to many reading opportunities throughout the school year such as competitions and author visits.
Impact
Children at Victoria Road Primary school will have a passion and enjoyment in reading across all areas of the curriculum. They are able to use language to communicate their ideas, views and feelings with confidence.
Reading
“I do believe that something magical can happen when you read a book”
J. K. Rowling
Phonics
In School, phonics is delivered through the Fischer Family Trust – Success for All. Generally children will work on: Phase 1-4 in Reception, Phase 4-5 in Year 1 and Phase 6 in year 2.
Children complete the ‘Phonics Screening Test’ at the end of Year 1. Children who do not pass the test at the end of Year 1 are required to retake this test at the end of Year 2. Children continue to be monitored and supported throughout school until they meet the standard. In Key Stage 1, phonic sessions take place daily and children are grouped to take part in activities appropriate to their current stage and needs.
In Key Stage 2, there is a provision of intervention groups for children who are still not secure with Phases 1-6 which focus on recognition of all grapheme / phoneme representations through investigation and developing spelling patterns. Intervention groups will also be supported through Letters and Sounds.
In addition to this, some children complete activities on ‘Lexia’ which is a computer-based reading software designed to support improving their skills as a reader.
Reading
At Victoria Road we are working hard developing a love of reading with all our children. It is our expectation that all children read their school reading book at home at least 3 times per week.
Reading is a life skill and opens up the curriculum to all children. All children are entitled to reach their full potential, therefore we hope this initiative will be well supported.
