St Joseph's Catholic Primary School

Intent

Through our reading curriculum we will give children the tools  to become skilled readers and help them to develop a passion for reading. At St Joseph’s  Catholic Primary School, we value reading as a key life skill, and are dedicated to enabling our pupils to become lifelong readers. Through reading, pupils have a chance to develop culturally, emotionally, intellectually, socially and spiritually.Reading also enables pupils both to acquire knowledge and to build on what they already know. We believe reading is key for academic success.  We use a synthetic phonics programme called Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised. Phonics is an inclusive literacy programme for all children learning to read, is taught whole class and interventions are done with ‘keep up, not catch up’ in mind.

A love of reading is key at St. Joseph’s with every class having it’s own reading areas, using calm environments and comfortable settings, we aim to encourage children to find a love of reading.

Implementation

• EYFS/KS1 – Little Wandle Letters and Sounds

Children are introduced to phase 1 of phonics in Nursery. Following this children begin phase 2 and start to follow Little Wandle Letters and Sounds in Reception, after they have been baselined.  Little Wandle phonics sessions occur daily with no exceptions across EYFS and KS1. 

• Three Reads

Three Reads is used to provide children with a chance to practise and apply their phonic knowledge using high quality texts. Three Reads consists of small  group reading sessions that occur three times per week, with each ‘read’ focussing on a different reading skill. Children begin Three Reads in Reception as soon as they are able to blend.

• Promoting a love for reading

We promote reading for pleasure at our school by: 

Engaging class reading areas in every classroom which are stocked with a range of classic and contemporary texts.
Three Reads  sessions at least 3 times a week in each class.
Class novels being read both to and by children on a daily basis
The use of high quality texts as a basis for our English lessons.

Impact

• Through the teaching of systematic phonics, our aim is for children to become fluent readers by the end of Key Stage One. This way, children can focus on developing their fluency and comprehension as they move through the school and begin reading to learn, rather than learning to read. Attainment in reading is measured every half term using Little Wandle assessments and using the statutory assessments at the end of Key Stage One (SATs). These results are measured against the reading attainment of children nationally. Attainment in phonics is measured by the Phonics Screening Test at the end of Year 1. 
• As well as statutory assessments, at St. Joseph’s we believe that a love of reading and the magic of a great story is something that is immeasurable!