St John Fisher Catholic Primary School

Reading: Curriculum Statement

Reading Curriculum Statement

Intent

At St John Fisher Catholic Primary School, the Gospel Values of Faith, Love, Hope, Courage, Justice, Wisdom and Respect are at the centre of all learning. We believe that a quality English curriculum should develop children’s love of reading and give the children opportunities to develop articulacy through discussion. We believe that our curriculum should provide all children with rich experiences enabling them to be:  spiritually enlightened, mentally and emotionally happy, culturally literate individuals with social competence, and masters of core skills. We recognise that all children have a right to an education in accordance with Article 28 of United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

We recognise that reading is a key life skill which enables a child to maximise their learning potential. We aim to foster a love for reading and to develop all important comprehension skills. We want to inspire children to be confident in the art of speaking about books and listening to stories.

We believe that a secure knowledge-base in English, which follows a clear pathway of progression as they advance through the primary curriculum, is crucial to a high-quality education and will provide children with the tools they need to participate fully as a member of society.

Implementation

These aims are embedded across our English lessons and the wider curriculum, which provides many purposeful opportunities for reading and discussion. At St John Fisher Catholic Primary School, we seek to foster key learning skills throughout our curriculum. These include: creative thinking, risk taking, self-managing, perseverance, collaboration, a growth mindset and being articulate. We use a wide variety of texts and resources to motivate and inspire our children. Teachers ensure that cross curricular links are woven into the programme of study. The national curriculum for English aims to ensure that all pupils:

• read easily, fluently and with good understanding

 • develop the habitat of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information

• acquire a wide vocabulary, an understanding of grammar and knowledge of linguistic conventions for reading, writing and spoken language

• appreciate our rich and varied literary heritage

• write clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style, in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences

• use discussion in order to learn; they should be able to elaborate and clearly explain their understanding and ideas

• are competent in the arts of speaking and listening

At St John Fisher Catholic Primary School, phonics is taught using a systematic synthetic programme in line with the Reading Framework July 2021 ‘Essential Letters and Sounds’ (ELS). EYFS and KS1 pupils are assigned high-quality, fully decodable books that match the phonics taught in class together with Pearson Bug Club Phonics eBooks which align with their phonics learning in school. We also assign pupils an additional ‘sharing’ book to supplement our reading scheme providing challenge. Pupils are expected to read for at least 15 minutes every day at home and read to their class teacher/teaching assistant at least twice a week. Additionally, pupils choose a picture book from their class book corner to take home once a week, allowing pupils to develop a love of listening to and discussing books with their families.

KS2 pupils read a variety of books from our reading scheme based on their reading level and also choose a library book from the school library. We expect that children will choose from a wide variety of books at an appropriate level and to cover a range of genres and authors. The school librarian supports pupils in choosing appropriate library books. In addition, KS2 pupils are assigned eBooks by their teachers on Pearson Bug Club to read at home. KS2 pupils are expected to read daily and make at least three comments about their reading in their Green Diaries each week.

To promote a love of reading, teachers read high-quality texts to their class for at least 15 minutes every day and each classroom has a reading corner. KS2 children also attend the school library at least once a week. Each year, we celebrate World Book Day, by dressing up as book characters and sharing our love of reading in a special assembly.

At St John Fisher Catholic Primary School, vocabulary and reading comprehension skills are explicitly taught using VIPERS during Storytime in EYFS and Guided Reading sessions in KS1. VIPERS stands for Vocabulary, Inference, Prediction, Explanation, Retrieval and Sequence and are the core comprehension skills we believe pupils need to be able to apply to their reading. In KS2, reading skills are explicitly taught in daily Whole Class Reading sessions underpinned by ‘Destination Reader’ fundamental principles.

Guided Reading is taught in KS1 as this enables pupils to read books that provide reasonable challenge to them in ability groups. Guided Reading is taught daily and activities include reading to the class teacher, reading to the teaching assistant, follow-on activities based on the books read during sessions and reading books for pleasure. Staff listening to groups reading ask pupils questions based on VIPERS reading comprehension skills and make comments about pupils’ reading in a Guided Reading folder.

In KS2, children receive a daily Whole Class Reading session underpinned by ‘Destination Reader’ fundamental principles. In these sessions, children are explicitly taught the reading skills of predicting, inferring, questioning, evaluating, clarifying, summarising and making connections, in addition to the learning behaviours of ‘support and actively listen to others’, ‘discuss and explain our ideas,’ and to ‘take responsibility for our own learning.’ The week’s Whole Class Reading lessons will include 2-3 sessions focussing on a specific skill and learning behaviour, 1-2 sessions focussing on embedding these skills by reading independently or to a partner – during which time teachers will make individual assessments of each child’s reading, and 1 session focussing on developing children’s answering of written comprehension through a ‘Big Picture’ lesson.

We identify pupils who need support and provide regular reading interventions for them led by an experienced teaching assistant, class teacher or outside agency. We also run a Reading club for Year 6, with a particular love of reading, which is run by the school librarian. We run parent information sessions for phonics and reading for Early Years Foundation Stage parents, each year. We also run sessions for Year 2 and Year 6 parents so that they can understand age-related expectations.

Impact

The impact on our pupils is clear: progress, sustained interest and transferrable skills. Day-to-day assessment of each child’s achievements helps inform each teacher’s planning for individuals. Progress is formally assessed on a termly basis in each attainment area of the subject. Each year, most pupils meet the standards at the end of each key stage, whilst some achieve at greater depth in reading. All children have their progress discussed at biannual pupil progress meetings and strategies are put in place for those who may not have made as much progress as expected.

We hope that as children move on through the year groups at St. John Fisher and eventually on to secondary education, that their love of reading travel with them as they continue to grow and learn together with Christ.

The Leader for Early Reading is Caroline Courtney.

The Leader for KS2 Reading is James Hunter.