Intent

At Barwic Parade, we recognise the significance of being a fluent reader and the impact this has on future learning. Therefore, reading is a top priority and is a key driver for our curriculum. Reading is taught by high quality systematic synthetic phonics sessions from the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) leading into Key Stage 1 (KS1) and beyond.

At Barwic Parade, we value reading as a key life skill, and are dedicated to enabling our pupils to become lifelong readers. We know that learning to read is the most important thing that a child will ever learn and that is why we put it at the forefront of everything we do.

We acknowledge that children need to be taught the key skills in segmenting and blending to be equipped with the knowledge to be able to complete the Phonics Screening Check at the end of Year 1. We also value and encourage the pupils to read for enjoyment and recognise that you can be taken to magical places by reading a book.

Implementation

Through the teaching of a bespoke programme based on Letters and Sounds, children are taught the essential skills needed for reading. Children are exposed and taught phase one phonics as soon as they enter Nursery. Phase one is a huge part of early reading and concentrates on developing children's ability to tune into sounds and develop their speaking and listening skills. This lays a strong foundation for the introduction of grapheme phoneme correspondences in phase two. Phonics is taught daily as soon as children enter in reception focusing on a grapheme over two days; one reading and one writing. This is then carried on into KS1. Children who need extra support in year 2 and KS2 will also receive daily teaching as well as carefully planned interventions for those who are working below expected standard. Children are assessed and put into differentiated groups where staff systematically teach learners the relationship between sounds and the written spelling patterns, or graphemes, which represent them. Sight words are also taught daily. All children will have a carefully selected fully decodable book in which they should be able to decode and read confidently, this is called their ‘‘learning to read book’’. We encourage children to read these daily to develop their early reading skills. Each child also has a second ‘‘reading for pleasure book’’, which can be any book that can be shared with or read by a family member at home. Children may not be able to fluently read this book, however; we want to instil a love of reading at home.

All staff that teach reading assess the pupil’s phonics knowledge daily. These regular assessments inform planning and allow teachers to identify any gaps in learning, if phonics is delivered by someone other than the child’s class teacher, these assessments are passed on to the relevant people after each session to ensure follow up instantly.

Impact

Through the teaching of systematic phonics, our aim is for children to become fluent readers by the end of KS1. This way, children can focus on developing their fluency, comprehension and prosody as they move through the school. Attainment in reading is measured using statutory assessments at the end of Key Stage One and Two. These results are measured against the reading attainment of children nationally. Attainment in phonics is measured by the Phonics Screening Check at the end of Year 1. However, we firmly believe that reading is the key to all learning and so the impact of our reading curriculum goes beyond the results of the statutory assessments. We want every child to be able to read fluently as we know that reading makes us brainy!