Reading
Success in reading has a direct effect upon progress in all other areas of the curriculum and is crucial in developing children’s self-confidence and motivation. Our curriculum prioritises reading as the gateway to all learning and aims to inspire all our pupils to develop a love of reading. We believe that reading is the key to independent learning and it is given the highest priority in the design and implementation of our curriculum.
Throughout all phases of learning in our school, Reading is taught and consolidated throughout the week. In the EYFS and Key Stage 1, children listen to a diet of carefully chosen and sequenced daily stories as well as participating in group and whole class phonics and guided reading sessions. Providing opportunities for all children to access high quality whole class texts is essential not only in the EYFS, but across the school. Every narrative unit of work has a text focus and all classes in KS1 and 2 have a daily focused Guided Reading session where the teacher can target phonological development and spelling, punctuation and grammar and specific reading skills such as decoding, making inferences, predicting and deducing. Home reading is give a high priority, with children in the EYFS and Key Stage 1 taking home 3 books a week to read and share. Some of these books are decodable and closely matched to their phonics programme. The others are a banded book and a carefully chosen story book to be shared with family.
Across the school, Reading is incorporated into almost every area of the curriculum where high quality texts or extracts can be used as the basis of learning (for example in history or R.E.) or level of understanding and interpretation can be assessed (for example using word problems in mathematics). Reading assessment is ongoing, with Teachers using Guided Reading sessions as an opportunity to make judgements, set targets and track progress. Pupils undertake half-termly Guided Reading assessment tasks based on specific learning focuses, skilfully designed to challenge the pupils' understanding of a shared text.
Teachers regularly read aloud to pupils - Studies show that children who are read to aloud are more likely to do better in school both academically and socially. Effective reading aloud time is about creating a positive reading experience to engage pupils, so teachers model their enthusiasm for books and reading them. Through discussing books of personal interest, regularly referencing books and promoting different kinds of books, teachers foster a love of reading that is passed onto the children. Teachers also encourage children to read widely by promoting reading and by using class rewards and reading diaries to stimulate this love of reading.
Throughout all phases of learning in our school, Reading is taught and consolidated throughout the week. In the EYFS and Key Stage 1, children listen to a diet of carefully chosen and sequenced daily stories as well as participating in group and whole class phonics and guided reading sessions. Providing opportunities for all children to access high quality whole class texts is essential not only in the EYFS, but across the school. Every narrative unit of work has a text focus and all classes in KS1 and 2 have a daily focused Guided Reading session where the teacher can target phonological development and spelling, punctuation and grammar and specific reading skills such as decoding, making inferences, predicting and deducing. Home reading is give a high priority, with children in the EYFS and Key Stage 1 taking home 3 books a week to read and share. Some of these books are decodable and closely matched to their phonics programme. The others are a banded book and a carefully chosen story book to be shared with family.
Across the school, Reading is incorporated into almost every area of the curriculum where high quality texts or extracts can be used as the basis of learning (for example in history or R.E.) or level of understanding and interpretation can be assessed (for example using word problems in mathematics). Reading assessment is ongoing, with Teachers using Guided Reading sessions as an opportunity to make judgements, set targets and track progress. Pupils undertake half-termly Guided Reading assessment tasks based on specific learning focuses, skilfully designed to challenge the pupils' understanding of a shared text.
Teachers regularly read aloud to pupils - Studies show that children who are read to aloud are more likely to do better in school both academically and socially. Effective reading aloud time is about creating a positive reading experience to engage pupils, so teachers model their enthusiasm for books and reading them. Through discussing books of personal interest, regularly referencing books and promoting different kinds of books, teachers foster a love of reading that is passed onto the children. Teachers also encourage children to read widely by promoting reading and by using class rewards and reading diaries to stimulate this love of reading.
| reading_overview.pdf |
| reading_at_st_marys.pdf |
Writing
At St Mary's we aim to teach pupils about how the writing process works and enable pupils to write for a variety of purposes and audiences based on stimulating text-based units of work, which cover a range of styles and genres. We ensure that children have regular writing opportunities across the curriculum as well as helping them to become fluent with handwriting, spelling, and different types of sentence construction. We give children regular diagnostic feedback on their writing, including clear steps to improve their written work.
The teaching of Writing at our school begins with emergent writing in EYFS using a multi-sensory approach, moving quickly to improving letter formation and simple label and caption writing. As the children become more confident in the application of their phonics (through their study of the Read, Write inc Phonics scheme), they will begin to form simple sentences to describe their illustrations. As children move into KS1 they will be exposed to different genres of writing such as poetry, instructions, stories and information texts before planning, editing and improving their own writing with a friend and with the teacher. These essential skills will continue to develop in KS2 where children’s reading development will heavily impact on the quality of their writing. They will need to show they can consistently apply sophisticated punctuation and sentence structures to a variety of text-types, whilst developing a writing style which engages the reader. The skills of planning, editing and re-drafting will continue to be taught however the emphasis will be placed on children being able to do this more independently and whilst they write.
Pupils are taught to recognise and understand key success criteria and understand that quality writing comprises a range of key components such as quality vocabulary, varied sentence structure and accurate punctuation - no matter what they are writing, in any subject. Pupils produce a number of extended pieces of assessed writing over a Term; Teachers use these pieces of writing, along with everyday writing ability demonstrated in all subjects, to make ongoing accurate assessments.
The teaching of Writing at our school begins with emergent writing in EYFS using a multi-sensory approach, moving quickly to improving letter formation and simple label and caption writing. As the children become more confident in the application of their phonics (through their study of the Read, Write inc Phonics scheme), they will begin to form simple sentences to describe their illustrations. As children move into KS1 they will be exposed to different genres of writing such as poetry, instructions, stories and information texts before planning, editing and improving their own writing with a friend and with the teacher. These essential skills will continue to develop in KS2 where children’s reading development will heavily impact on the quality of their writing. They will need to show they can consistently apply sophisticated punctuation and sentence structures to a variety of text-types, whilst developing a writing style which engages the reader. The skills of planning, editing and re-drafting will continue to be taught however the emphasis will be placed on children being able to do this more independently and whilst they write.
Pupils are taught to recognise and understand key success criteria and understand that quality writing comprises a range of key components such as quality vocabulary, varied sentence structure and accurate punctuation - no matter what they are writing, in any subject. Pupils produce a number of extended pieces of assessed writing over a Term; Teachers use these pieces of writing, along with everyday writing ability demonstrated in all subjects, to make ongoing accurate assessments.
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Speaking and Listening
Important features of Speaking and Listening should be incorporated into every subject we teach. Beginning in the EYFS, through the prime area of ‘Communication and Language’, Speaking and Listening is taught across the school though role play, debate, discussion, performance and recital, and continually assessed by the Class Teacher. In this way, we ensure that all children become confident, eloquent and informed speakers in front of a variety of audiences as well as being effective listeners armed with good questions when the role is reversed.