By the end of Early Years, our children will be ‘Brilliant Bookworms’, talking about the books they read and noticing things that are similar in books.
By the end of Key Stage 1, our pupils will have the ability to decode words to unlock a love for reading and know this opens their minds to new worlds of literary adventure.
By the end of Key Stage 2, our pupils will become lifelong readers, enriched by the pleasure of exploring diverse literary worlds fostered by their experiences at our school.
Here at PSJ Primary we recognise that the ability to read, both for information gathering and for pleasure, is the fundamental key that unlocks life-long learning. Alongside daily guided reading, each class has story time read by the teacher. This encourages book talk based around the key concepts of reading.
To find out more about the rationale behind reading practice, reading interventions, reading assessment and the reading culture at PSJ, take a look at our Reading at PSJ document.
A child’s reading journey starts in Nursery here at PSJ. ‘Stories and Songs’, ‘Talk Time’ and ‘Marvellous Me’ are daily sessions that help build our children’s love of communication and reading. Single letter recognition is introduced in Nursery/Pre-school (Phase 1) and in Reception children begin to learn the sounds that letters make (phonemes), Phase 2.
Read Write Inc Phonics is a DFE-validated systematic synthetic phonics programme with a whole school approach to teaching early reading and writing, designed to ensure progress for every child.
RWI begins in Nursery where children are introduced to pictures that match the initial letter sounds. This is the first building block to reading when the children get to Reception. When children start in reception they are re-introduced formally to all the initial letter sounds. They learn to recognise each sound individually before learning to blend them into simple words.
Once children know all of their initial sounds, they are introduced to digraphs using some each to remember phrases. Alongside the sounds, children learn to read coloured books matched exactly to their ability and what they have been learning.
‘VIPERS’ is an acronym to aid the recall of the 6 reading domains as part of the UK’s reading curriculum; Vocabulary, Inference, Predication, Explanation, Retrieval, Sequence and Summarise. They are the key areas which we feel children need to know and understand in order to improve their comprehension of texts.
We have a Literacy Spine of quality texts which are used throughout school, that builds children’s knowledge of literature and their reading ability in a structured way. We study a range of modern and classic fiction including books such as Pig Heart Boy in Y6, Tom’s Midnight Garden in Y5, The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe in Y4, The Enchanted Wood in Y3, The Hodgeheg in Y2, The Tiger who Came to Tea in Y1, The Colour Monster in Reception and The Very Hungry Caterpillar in Nursery.
Our Literature Spine is a list of some of the books that children at PSJ Primary are reading in class through the school.
The literature spine choices have been partly formed by research, including 5 Plagues (Doug Lemov), Talk for Writing (Pie Corbett), and teachers own choices for must reads.
Children will be given a reading book to take home each week and we expect children to bring their reading books into school every day. All children in Reception are given a free book bag, if you would like to purchase a new one they can be bought from the school office.
When children have worked through the coloured bands of RWI, they begin on our ‘Accelerated Reader’ programme. This enables children to be matched to books that are exactly pitched to their reading level. Children in KS2 bring home a matched reading book each evening alongside a sharing book. We expect children to bring their reading books into school each day. Developing confident readers is one of our school priorities.
We are very fortunate to have a well-resourced and welcoming library where children can come and change their books, as well as dip into books that spark their interests. We have a large range of books that help children to explore and understand our school values and drivers through stories. Additionally, our 50 inspirational people all have books so children can find out more. For avid readers, we have some specially selected challenging reads, and for less confident readers accessible texts.
Each classroom has its very own book corner. This is full of carefully chosen, wide ranging books that help meet the needs and interests of the individual class. Teachers are skilled at selecting books that inspire, challenge and motivate their pupils. Children are encouraged to recommend and review books in order to inspire each other with their love of reading.
If your child is reading accelerated reader books they will need to complete a quiz after finishing the book. This will let us know if they have understood what they have read. We will help the children do this in school, however, if your child would like to complete their quiz outside of school you can follow this link:
Our progression document below outlines the detailed learning journey your child will take in reading as they move through our school.