We are readers

At Southborough we believe that reading is central to a child’s understanding of the school curriculum and is of vital importance in life. We will develop a love and appreciation of reading which will stay with children for life. We will use good reading materials and resources to provide a breadth and range of reading material in school.

Foundation and Key Stage 1 classes enjoy and participate in story time sessions regularly.  Teachers in Key Stage 2 regularly share a range of narrative and non-narrative texts with the whole class.

Each class has a book corner.   As part of home reading, children should be selecting and reading a book appropriate to their level.  We encourage parents/carers to hear their child read unless they are at a level where the pupils can assess their own reading.  Feedback on home reading is made by parents/carers or pupils within the Home Reading Records.

We promote a love of reading and reading for enjoyment. Each class has an engaging and exciting book corner, where children have the opportunity to borrow books and choose books that interest them. We also have many exciting reading events throughout the year, for example: author visits with book signings; trips to the local library; and dressing up for World Book Day!

In the early stages of school, reading is taught primarily through phonics, using the DFE accredited Little Wandle Letters and Sounds programme. This is supported by regular guided reading sessions where children enjoy and discuss books in a group, as well as regular home reading.

Once fluent, in Key Stage 2, pupils learn more about the comprehension and analytical aspects of reading, with continued guided reading sessions. For this we follow the CUSP curriculum.

CUSP Reading is deliberately designed to be ambitious and aspirational, ensuring that every child leaves our school as a competent, confident reader. Drawing on the latest research around explicit vocabulary instruction, reading fluency and key comprehension strategies, this curriculum is a synthesis of what we know works in helping children make outstanding progress in reading and a distillation into consistent, well-structured practice.

Pupils will receive a daily diet of excellent reading teaching and this will be supplemented by regular opportunities to engage with shared reading experiences, promoting the joy of reading with the whole school community. The clear structure and principles ensure that teaching is progressive, challenging and engaging and the rich, diverse literature spine acts as both a mirror so that every child can see themselves in the core texts and as a mirror to engage pupils with experiences beyond their own field of reference.

Home reading

As part of home reading, children should be selecting and reading a book appropriate to their level. We encourage parents/carers to hear their child read unless they are at a level where the pupils can assess their own reading. Feedback on home reading is made by parents/carers or pupils within the Home Reading Records.

 

 

We are decoders

At Southborough Primary School we understand the relationship between the sounds of spoken language, and the letters and graphemes of written language. We use phonics as the first strategy to help children learn to read. We learn that phonemes are ‘a sound’ and that graphemes are ‘a sound written down’. We follow the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds programme to learn to blend sounds together to say, read and write new and unfamiliar words with confidence. Please click here to access the parents page of the website: https://www.littlewandlelettersandsounds.org.uk/resources/for-parents/

Phonics

Research shows that teaching Phonics in a structured and systematic way is the most effective way of teaching young children to read.  Almost all children who receive good teaching of Phonics will learn the skills they need to decifer new and unfamiliar words. At South Norwood Primary School Phonics in the Early Years is taught on a daily basis and follows the DFE accredited Little Wandle Letters and Sounds programme. Children are taught the skills for segmenting and blending words and are introduced to new phonemes as part of a systematic synthetic approach. The teaching of Phonics continues in Years 1 and 2 as children are introduced to alternative graphemes, lesser known sounds and begin to learn some of the more complicated spelling rules.

At the end of Year 1 children are required to sit the Phonics Screening Check to assess their ability to segment and blend words. Children are presented with 40 words – a mixture of real and pseudo words and they are expected to apply their Phonics knowledge to read the words. If children are unsuccessful in Year 1 they have the opportunity to retake the test in Year 2. Intervention groups are set up for those children struggling with their Phonics learning and this additional support will continue in Key Stage 2 if necessary.