Reading and phonics

Intent

At Bretherton Endowed Primary School our aim is for every child to become a fluent reader.  We want children to become fluent readers in order for them to reach age related expectations or make accelerated progress from their starting point.  As well as this we want children to develop a love for reading and read for pleasure on a regular basis. 

Our curriculum is designed to be ambitious and tailored to our pupils and their needs. It is designed to include a variety of approaches to enable the pupils to make good progress. 

The aims of teaching reading in our school are to develop pupils who: 

• show high levels of achievement and exhibit very positive attitudes towards reading; 
• rapidly acquire a secure knowledge of letters and sounds and make sustained progress in learning to read fluently; 
• read easily and fluently with good understanding across both fiction and non-fiction; 
• acquire a wider vocabulary; 
• participate in the teaching of phonics knowledge, skills and understanding in a systematic and enjoyable way; 

• develop their reading in all subjects to support their acquisition of knowledge; 
• are confident, independent readers with a love of reading; 
• read for pleasure both at home and school on a regular basis and enjoy being read to; 
• through their reading develop culturally, emotionally, intellectually, socially and spiritually; 
• develop good comprehension drawing from their linguistic knowledge.
• see reading as a lifelong skill, something to treasure and not to fear or be seen as a chore. 

At Bretherton Endowed school we strive for children to be a ‘Primary Literate Pupil’ 

By the end of year 6. we aim for a child to be able to: 

• read and write with confidence, fluency and understanding, orchestrating a range of independent strategies to self-monitor and correct. 

• have an interest in books and read for enjoyment 
• have an interest in words, their meanings; developing a growing vocabulary in spoken and written forms. 
• understand a range of text types and genres – be able to write in a variety of styles and forms appropriate to the situation. 
• be developing the powers of imagination, inventiveness and critical awareness.   
• have a suitable technical vocabulary to articulate their responses. 

• progress to the next stage of education and read for life. 

Process in creating our curriculum

Phonics
In Reception and Key Stage 1 each child takes part in a daily phonics lesson of 20-30 minutes.  The children are taught in a mastery approach.  By the end of Reception each child is expected to have achieved Phase 4; by the end of Year 1 each child is expected to have achieved Phase 5; by the end of Year 2 each child is expected to have achieved Phase 6.  Phonics sessions are interactive and fun!  The children are taught and read books from our newly purchased phonics scheme: Monster Phonics.    Further information regarding phonics can be located by clicking on the link below. All teachers follow the phonics scheme.

Key actions for year

• • Conduct baseline reading culture audit (library use, class reading corners, book stock, pupil & parent reading survey) 
  • Introduce weekly whole-class story and book-talk sessions (modelled by teachers), plus fortnightly reading buddies pairing older and younger pupils 
  • Develop parent engagement in reading (reading guidance, workshops, book swaps, home reading expectations and incentives) 
  • Review and refine Upper KS2 medium-term plans (MTPs) to ensure sequence covers all genres, grammar, vocabulary progression and cross-curricular writing opportunities 
  • Use termly standardised assessments (reading age / comprehension) 
  • Audit staff training needs and deliver mandatory phonics training (initial and refresher) for all staff who deliver phonics (including TAs), including modelling lessons and lesson observation follow-ups 
  • Parent support: run phonics workshops and provide home resource packs and simple guidance for reading at home to reinforce phonics learning

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