The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.
– Dr. Seuss

Vision

Children at St John the Baptist should leave us loving reading and regularly reading for pleasure. They enjoy reading a variety of texts and can talk in detail and at length about their reading, favourite authors, books they enjoy and how reading and writing support one another. Children have been taught the skills needed to initially decode sounds then words; blend sounds to create words; read sentences, paragraphs moving to whole texts with accuracy and understanding. Reading occurs throughout the curriculum and children transfer their skills across all lessons.

Curriculum

The School has created its own bespoke reading programmes alongside schemes for phonics and early reading. Children in EYFS learn systematic phonics through the Read Write Inc (RWI) programme moving in to reading decodable texts and learning comprehension skills as they build their phonic knowledge.

Children start by learning every-day and initial sounds to help their phonological awareness.

In Year 1, children also use RWI to learn phonics and practise reading phonetically decodable texts. They receive daily phonics tuition and four reading lessons a week in which to practise blending and comprehension skills. They sit Phonics Screenings Tests in the Summer. Decodable books take the onus out of decoding the text and children are able to explore comprehension skills fully. They also study ‘real books’ alongside phonic readers to promote comprehension skills and groups are small so reading skills and tuition is matched to the ability of the group.

From Year 2 onwards children should move in to a bespoke reading scheme based loosely on an SfA (Success for All) model. They read real fiction and non-fiction texts and learn how to clarify vocabulary and summarise. Key reading skills are taught through 4 dedicated reading sessions a week. Children also practise their reading skills in the school’s writing programme too. By using real texts, the children read in context and learn to love reading widely and regularly.

Library

The school library encourages children to choose and select their own books. It is open throughout the school day so that lessons can use the libraries rich and varied resources. Children visit the school library at least weekly with their class to swap, change, discuss and enjoy reading.

Storytime

Children at St John the Baptist are heard read and read to every day. At 3:00pm the whole school stops and stories are read by class teachers. Children and adults engage in a variety of high quality texts from a rich range of authors and illustrators.

Oxford Owl

Please find some useful information and log in details to access free e-books from Oxford Owl here.

Useful Links

• http://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/ks1/  – KS1 Bitesize
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/ks2/   – KS2 Bitesize