At Saint Joseph’s, the Borough, we aim to create the very best readers and thinkers. We strive to enable children to read easily, fluently and with good understanding. We aim to inspire an appreciation of our rich and varied literary heritage and a habit of reading widely, often and for pleasure as well as information. We intend to support children in their acquisition of high level vocabulary and to enable them to partake in rich and varied conversations, both at school and beyond. With secure reading skills children will have the tools they need to participate fully as members of society. We value reading as a key life skill, and are dedicated to enabling our pupils to become lifelong readers. We believe reading is key for academic success and so we have a holistic approach to the teaching of reading. The aim is to expose pupils to texts where 95% of words can be read but 5% form the basis of new learning. Therefore, pupils are carefully tracked through the school’s reading scheme. In planning and guiding children’s activities, teachers will reflect on the different ways that children learn and reflect these in their practice. Children will develop their competence in both word reading and comprehension through high quality discussion with the teacher. We recognise that it is essential that all children are able to read fluently, and with confidence, in any subject throughout their educational journey.
During their time at Saint Joseph’s, the Borough, children engage in a rigorous Reading curriculum that provides many purposeful opportunities and vocabulary acquisition. Lessons are clearly differentiated and there are high expectations of reading in all areas of the curriculum. A love of reading is fostered early with lots of opportunities for listening to stories, role play and the use of children’s own experiences to comment on characters and events. Reception (summer term) and Year 1 (autumn and spring term) partake in DSR (Daily Supported Reading) sessions. This enables children to read with familiar adults in intimate groups, giving them the confidence to tackle increasingly tricky texts in a safe environment. Daily phonics in Year 1 means that by the end of Year 2, pupils recognise common exception words, decode words confidently and participate in discussions about books. In Years 2-6 teachers use Literacy Leaves, from The Literacy Tree scheme, to plan and deliver sequences of lessons. There are at least three whole class Reading sessions weekly, focused on inference, prediction, retrieval and sequencing using high quality texts and extracts from texts. In Key Stage 2 children encounter a wider range of fiction, poetry, plays, non-fiction books, myths, legends, traditional stories, modern fiction and books from other cultures and traditions. They use dictionaries to check the meaning of new words and they become more independent in checking their understanding. The children explain how language, structure and presentation contribute to meaning and they evaluate the impact that language, including figurative language, has on the reader. Throughout the school year Reading is celebrated with World Book Day, author and poet visits and parental reading workshops. Each class visits the local John Harvard library twice a term to borrow books and witness the importance that literature plays in the wider community. Reading areas in classrooms are attractive and engaging and children are given ownership over how they are organised and which books they choose to read. Each classroom has a selection of books which are directly linked to particular areas of study. This offers opportunities for the children to apply their reading skills across the curriculum. In addition, class and school-wide Reading displays encourage a love of the subject and inspire children to read more widely and more often.
The large majority of our pupils will be working at least at age-related expectations for their year group at the end of each school year in Reading and a significant proportion will be working beyond these expectations. By the time children leave Saint Joseph’s they will be passionate about reading and be able to recommend books to their peers, have a thirst for reading a range of genres including poetry, and participate in enthusiastic discussions about books read. The impact on our children is clear: progress, sustained learning and transferable skills. Children will use their reading skills as a key tool in helping them to learn, and as a result, know more, remember more and understand more. In addition to this, they will draw upon their extensive reading to support them in improving their writing. Our children will talk eagerly about books, and use the stories and information they have discovered to expand their imaginations. We want them to be habitual readers who are impatient to find out what happens next. As a result of our reading curriculum, we will have a community of enthusiastic readers, who enjoy showcasing their developing literacy knowledge and skills.
