Intent
At Horbury St Peter’s and Clifton Primary School, we intend to instil the “St Peter’s Spirit” in all our children. The teaching of phonics and reading in particular encourages our children to value the importance of:
Inspiration, Inquisitiveness and Perseverance
as they explore the world of books and reading while applying their skills to become lifelong readers.
We value reading as a key life skill and are dedicated to enabling our pupils to become lifelong readers. We believe reading is key for academic success and our intent is to promote the following:
- To foster a love of reading and enjoy reading for pleasure
- To develop curious learners who read confidently and fluently and seek to acquire knowledge independently
- Give our children the reading skills they need to access all areas of the curriculum.
At Horbury St Peter’s and Clifton, we consider ourselves a community of readers. Therefore, we expect all adults to model and communicate their love of reading in the following ways:
- Story time
- Opportunities for silent reading time
- Shared and guided/whole class reading
- Providing exciting reading areas that inspire our children to read
- Reading with the individual children who need our support the most
We believe that every child should be able to immerse themselves in a book and feel represented, valued and celebrated.
Implementation
Reading is not just a key part of the English curriculum – it is happening all the time in the classroom. It is taught in specific reading and English lessons, but children are constantly practising their reading skills in the wider curriculum.
Reading is making meaning from print. It requires that children can:
Identify the words in print – a process called word recognition
Construct an understanding from them – a process called comprehension
Coordinate identifying words and making meaning so that reading is automatic and accurate – an achievement called fluency.
From the very beginning of their time with us in Lower Foundation children begin their reading journey, their play is carefully planned so that language skills are developed, book talk is introduced and they are seeing print in real life contexts. The print rich environment encourages children to look at words and the shapes they make whilst the verbal rich environment encourages talk about books, characters and develops understanding. The reading corners in Upper and Lower foundation stage are full of wondrous resources to support early reading for example puppets, small world objects and range of books. Throughout school each classroom is equipped with an engaging and exciting reading area, where the children can access a range of books from many genres and authors and poets. As children move through EYFS and KS1, they develop their skills in decoding. By the time they reach KS2 most children have mastered their phonics and the balance moves towards making meaning from the text and developing fluency.
Impact
A child that reads every day at home and at school is at a huge advantage. Reading as regularly as you can with your child and to your child is a gift that will keep on giving throughout their lifetime as they become an independent and avid reader.
Did you know? If you can’t read 5% of words in a text the meaning becomes lost. This is why it is so important to read with your child to help them overcome unfamiliar or tricky words, so that they understand what they are reading.
Children will move through the reading development and journey at different rates and speeds. Here you can find our progression steps for reading and what a child should be doing in each year group.
Supporting your child’s reading
What can be done at home to support a child’s reading journey
- Read every night for up to twenty minutes (depending on the age of the child), listening to your child read as this helps them to develop their fluency and stamina. It is especially important that children continue to do this all the way up to year 6. A bedtime story routine can be a wonderful time to share stories – both new ones and well-loved favourites!
- Read to your child. This will help them to understand how to use expression to bring stories to life and develop their own voice as readers.
- After listening to them, or reading to them, ask them some of the questions about the book and relate it to their experiences. The discussion you have will be very valuable to their reading development.
- Talk about the meanings of new words.
- Read the same book again and again if you have to, we all have our favourite book.
- Sign their reading record every time they have read.
- Join the library, you can take out up to 8 books a time or use the computers for free.
- Be a good role model for your child. Try to have a range of books and reading materials in your home and be seen reading.
“If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.” – Albert Einstein
How reading at home affects your child’s reading performance
| Child A | Child B | Child C |
|---|---|---|
| 20 minutes additional reading at home everyday | 5 minutes additional reading at home everyday | 1 minute additional reading at home everyday |
| 60 hours per school year | 15 hours per school year | 3 hours per school year |
| 1,800,000 words per school year | 282,000 words per school year | 8,000 words per school year |
| By the end of Year 6, 60 whole days’ reading | By the end of Year 6, 12 whole days’ reading | By the end of Year 6, 3 whole days’ reading |
| Reading Scores usually within the 90% range | Reading Scores usually within the 50% range | Reading Scores usually within the 10% range |
Reading every day gives your child so many advantages, they can access not just English lessons but the whole curriculum. It provides confidence and resilience for them as well as development of a key life skill.
If you want to know more about books that are engaging and recommended for your child, you can find 100 to read books for each year group here.
“What is a bookshelf other than a treasure chest for a curious mind”
Learning Journeys and Policies
Year 1 Phonics Screening Check Information
Little Wandle
At Horbury St Peter’s and Clifton, we believe that all our children can become fluent readers and writers. We have recently implemented our new phonics and early reading scheme in Spring term 2022 called Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised. This scheme is a systematic and synthetic phonics programme which begins in Nursery/Reception and follows the Little Wandle Letter and Sounds Revised progression ensuring all children build on their growing knowledge of the alphabetic code, mastering phonics to read and spell as they move through school. By the time our children leave us, they can read confidently for meaning and regularly enjoy reading for pleasure.
In February 2022, we held parent meetings to introduce our new phonics and early reading scheme; we were pleased that they were well attended, but for anyone who was unable to attend or wishes to access the information shared again, we have the following links and downloads available to help you to support your child with reading: