Intent
At Ford Primary School, we believe that success at early reading is key to unlocking the rest of the curriculum. We prioritise reading to ensure that children are equipped with the skills they need to access the curriculum as a whole. For example, children will learn how to decoding and encoding words as well as spelling and accurate letter formation. All children, regardless of their pre-school experience, will receive daily, high quality systematic synthetic phonic teaching tailored to their level. It will be delivered by a team of teachers and teaching assistants trained in Read Write Inc and begins when a child joins our nursery.
Reading is a key skill that we want children at Ford to master early on. Once children have grasped the foundations of phonics our guided reading sessions focus on fluency, comprehension and reading for pleasure. These fundamental skills not only hold the keys to the rest of the curriculum but also have a huge impact on children’s self-esteem and future life chances. Children at Ford have access to high-quality books through their phonics programme as well as in our well-stocked library.
During their time at Ford, we strive for children to hear a wide range of high-quality texts read aloud in the classroom, including stories, poems, rhymes and non-fiction to develop their vocabulary, language comprehension and love of reading.
Implementation
Our Nursery children receive daily phonics teaching with a focus on pre-reading skills. This is delivered using the RWInc nusery programme. This includes body percussion, environmental sounds, oral blending and segmenting. Later on, children will be taught a new sound each week and this leads into the Read Write Inc programme which starts in the Summer term.
Reception and KS1 children receive daily Read, Write Inc systematic synthetic phonics teaching. Once children have completed this scheme they move onto Accelerated Reader. All children are on Accelerated Reader by the time they join KS2. Those children in KS2 that require additional help to decode and encode words will continue to receive Read Write Inc booster sessions by a trained specialist. Children who receive daily Read Write Inc teaching will be assessed every half term, this ensures that children receive teaching that is tailored to their individual needs.
When a child turns four they start to take home phonetically decodable books tailored to their phonics level. We make sure that pupils read books that are closely matched to their increasing knowledge of phonics and ability to read ‘tricky words’; so they experience early reading success and gain confidence that they are readers, as well as consolidating the learning that takes place in school. This continues throughout KS1 or until a child reaches the end of the Read Write Inc scheme at which point they will join the Accelerated Reader Scheme. We advise that children read at home at least 3 times a week.
Teachers follow the progression guidelines for teaching word level and comprehension skills. Daily Guided Reading sessions allow teachers to work with small groups on targets tailored to the children’s needs.
Throughout the school children will participate in whole-class reading sessions whereby they will hear a variety of high-quality texts, with increasing complexity as they move up the school. This ensures that children are exposed to new vocabulary and have the opportunity to develop their comprehension skills.
Impact
By the time children leave Ford Primary School they are competent readers who have a thirst for reading a range of genres. Throughout the teaching of Phonics, we are able to measure attainment using the Key Stage One and Key Stage Two national assessments, along with the information provided by the Phonics Screening check in Year One. However, at Ford Primary School, we believe that reading is the key to all learning and so the impact of our reading curriculum goes beyond and is embedded across the entire curriculum for our children.
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