Intent

At Sythwood Primary and Nursery School, we believe that learning to read is the most important thing your child will learn at our school. Reading is vital for academic success and we promote reading across the curriculum. Being able to read allows children to understand the world, ask questions and acquire knowledge.

All children are read a story daily and participate in whole class reading sessions where they are taught key reading skills; such as retrieval, inference and prediction. The diversity of our community is reflected in our reading spine which allows children to learn about different cultures, abilities, careers and experiences. It also allows children to identify with characters in stories and see themselves fully represented. Celebrating rich language, developing vocabulary and learning about other cultures ensures that children have the cultural capital required to succeed in life.

Children at Sythwood learn to read using Read, Write, Inc. which teaches children letter sounds, how to form letters/words correctly and finally to read lively storybooks. This is used from Reception to Year 2 in order to enable children to become competent, fluent readers who are able to communicate clearly about what they have read and discuss vocabulary used. If children need further support with reading, they may have a phonics intervention, 1:1 tutoring or support from our Reading Recovery teacher. Children work in groups based on their current phonics knowledge and regularly move groups so that they can make accelerated progress.

In Key Stage 2, children begin using Accelerated Reader and they participate in a STAR Reader test to check their comprehension and reading level so that they are able to read books at a suitable level of challenge. They read books at school and at home before taking a short quiz to check that they have fully understood what they are reading. If children need further support to make accelerated progress, they may take part in the Project X Code interventions to allow them to secure their reading knowledge and fully access the curriculum.

Our curriculum is designed with these principles:

•         language-rich whole class reading sessions to develop communication and fluency

•         children reading books that match their understanding and knowledge

•         reading spine books used to pre-teach new subjects, revisit subjects previously taught and expose children to new knowledge through stories

•         teachers are clear on progression of reading skills and teach these explicitly

•         regular teacher assessment ensures children learn in greater depth and make accelerated progress 

•         expectations for children to communicate about books regularly

•         children read a wide variety of texts to develop an interest in many subjects

Pleae see the Phonics page under Subjects on this website for more information, videos and links. 

Intent

Communication is vital for learning throughout the curriculum. At Sythwood Primary and Nursery School, we want to ensure that all children are confident and enthusiastic writers. Teachers plan English lessons to suit the individual needs of the children with appropriate support and challenge. Progression documents are used by teachers for clarity on when content is taught and how it develops from each year and key stage. Each day, children will access a range of activities to develop and apply their speaking, listening and writing skills.

In EYFS, early writing is developed through early mark making skills and carefully planned opportunities to enhance fine motor control. Targeted skills are taught through the Read, Write, Inc. phonics program which enables children to read and form their letters correctly from Reception. In Key Stage 1, teachers plan writing tasks based on a wide range of rich texts taken from the Reading Spine where the children are able to develop their writing knowledge, quality and stamina. There is a focus on mastering the basics in writing and developing sentence structures before the children move into Key Stage 2.

Once the children reach Key Stage 2, they learn how to edit and redraft their work; this gives them the opportunity to develop and understand their author’s voice. Model texts and shared stories are purposefully mapped across the year groups so that children can build on prior knowledge, with increasingly challenging content that reflects the Sythwood community. 

The size of a pupil’s vocabulary in their early years of schooling is a significant predictor of academic attainment in later schooling and of success in life. Because of this, we explicitly teach key vocabulary in all areas of the curriculum so that the children not only write accurately but have a rich bank of language to draw upon. To support vocabulary in EYFS and Year 1, we use Word Aware. This is a structured approach to promote vocabulary development.  This approach is full of practical and inspiring ideas that can be applied to develop both spoken and written vocabulary.

Children from Nursery to Year 6 are exposed to a wide variety of authors, text types and subject-specific texts. This allows them to develop their vocabulary, learn about types of stories and develop a love of reading for pleasure.

Each year group has a 'Reading Spine' which includes a variety of books chosen carefully to support the delivery of the curriculum. Each spine is regularly updated and texts are being added frequently to ensure new vocabulary and text types are included.

You can find copies of each Reading Spine below in the 'Documents' section.