READING AT ST MATTHEW’S C OF E PRIMARY AND NURSERY ACADEMY 

At St Matthew’s C of E Nursery and Primary Academy, we believe that speaking, listening, reading and writing are fundamental life skills, which enable children to communicate effectively in all areas of the curriculum and equips them for the challenges they will face in the wider world. 

As well as improving their reading skill, we aim for our children to develop a love of reading, appreciating our rich and varied literary heritage and forming a habit of reading widely and often. 

INTENT FOR IMPROVING THE SKILL OF READING 

We are determined that: 

• Every pupil will learn to read, regardless of their background, needs or abilities. 
• All pupils, including the weakest readers, make sufficient progress to meet or exceed age-related expectations. 
• Children are able to develop vocabulary, language comprehension, and love of reading through stories, poems, rhymes and non-fiction 
• Children are familiar with, and enjoy listening to a wide range of stories, poems, rhymes and non-fiction. 
• St Matthew’s phonics programme (Phonics Bug) matches or exceeds the expectations of the national curriculum and the Early Learning Goals. 
• St Matthew’s staff have clear expectations of pupils’ phonics progress term by term, from Reception to Year 2. 
• The sequence of reading books shows cumulative progression in phonics knowledge that is matched closely to the school’s phonics programme. 
• Teachers will give pupils sufficient practice in reading and re-reading books that match the grapheme-phoneme correspondences they know, both in school and at home. 
• Reading, including the teaching of systematic, synthetic phonics, is taught from the beginning of Reception. 
• Ongoing assessment of pupils’ phonics progress is sufficiently frequent and detailed to identify any pupil who is falling behind the programme’s pace. If they do fall behind, targeted support is given immediately. 
• St Matthew’s staff have developed sufficient expertise in the teaching of phonics and reading. 
• Re-think reading scheme will be used to systematically improve children’s ability to read and respond to texts. 
• Children are exposed to a breadth of high quality texts during the writing teaching sequences which includes text analysis and deconstruction.   

Our implementation is set out in our reading progression document. 

Intent for developing the love of reading

We give all children the opportunity to enter the magical worlds that books open up to them. We promote reading for pleasure as part of our reading and wider curriculum. 

We aim to ensure that: 

• Children are encouraged to develop their own love of genres and authors and to review their books objectively. 
• Children gain a deep love of literature across a range of genres, cultures and styles. 
• We have a reading culture where children are exposed to a range of high-quality texts in a variety of contexts and have opportunities to browse literature, as well as structured reading activities. 
• Children build preferences in reading and choose to read a variety of texts 
• Children recognise individual authors and styles of reading that they enjoy 
• Children engage in book discussion in a range of contexts, alongside both adults and peers 
• Children are given the opportunity to share and recommend a range of books

Implementation

• A well sequenced curriculum (phonetically decodable in YN/R/1, reading scheme in Year 2 (and until needed) and Accelerated Reader in Key Stage 2.
• A systematic approach to the teaching of guided reading.
• Well chosen and engaging curriculum texts 
• Annual book fair to promote new books available as well classic texts 
• Involvement in World Book Day reading activities to share a love of books 
• Sharing books in assembly 
• Reading champions to develop opportunities for reading for pleasure 
• Where possible class visits to the local library 
• Class book corners 
• High quality whole class stories 
• Focus on maintaining high quality, interesting and well-matched books into library 
• Lunch time reading club 
• Debate Club 
• After school reading club 

Impact 

As a result, we have a community of enthusiastic readers who enjoy showcasing their developing literacy skills. They are confident to take risks in their reading and love to discuss and share their ideas. 

Use the links below to explore important documents

Reading Progression

Reading for Pleasure

At St Matthew's we place strong emphasis on reading for pleasure and we have.  As part of that, we have developed a reading for pleasure Padlet which is full of staff reviews of high quality texts.  This can be used by children or parents when deciding what to read at home.

We have also developed a structured approach to our class readers and each year group has a Padlet that is shared with parents.  Click the links below to access each Padlet.  YR and YN have books that change so frequently that to create a Padlet would be impossible and so please do speak with the class teachers to find out more about their book choices.

Year 1Year 2Year 3Year 4Year 5Year 6

What is Phonics?

Phonics is a way of teaching children to read quickly and skilfully. They are taught how to:

• recognise the sounds that each individual letter makes;
• identify the sounds that different combinations of letters make - such as ‘sh’ or ‘oo’, and,
• blend these sounds together from left to right to make a word.

Children can then use this knowledge to decode new words that they hear or see. This is the first important step in learning to read.

Why Phonics?

Research shows that when phonics is taught in a structured way – starting with the easiest sounds and progressing through to the most complex – it 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 tackle new words. They can then go on to read any kind of text fluently and confidently, and to read for enjoyment.

Children who have been taught phonics also tend to read more accurately than those taught using other methods, such as ‘look and say’. This includes children who find learning to read difficult, for example those who have dyslexia.

Our school uses the Government approved programme 'Bug Club Phonics' to deliver a systematic and rigorous approach to phonics.

Children are taught with their peers in small groups to ensure they keep pace with the programme of study. When needed, children receive daily, intensive catch-up sessions to ensure every child keeps pace with the learning.  

In the Foundation Stage and Year One all children will have a daily phonics lesson followed up by activities, in school and at home, that support and embed the learning of the previously taught sounds.

In the Foundation Stage children will be heard read at least twice a week by the teacher and by the teaching assistant. In Year One and beyond this is at least once a week and daily additional reading is in place for those children who need it. Comments about reading will be made in a child’s Reading Record book. This book should come to school daily. In Reception and Year One children will have fully decodable books which children will be abel to use their acquired phonics skills to read.  The books that go home with children are for practice and fluency and include sounds that children are familiar with.  Parents are encouraged to hear their child read every day if possible and to write in their reading record. Children will be rewarded with certificates as they move through sets of books.

For children in Year Two and KS2 that require additional phonics support, daily additional interventions are in place led by skilled teachers or teaching assistants.

Support for Parents

In September we offer parents a ‘ How to support your child to read’ workshop. In addition we have regular opportunities in the Nursery, Reception and Year One for parents to come and take part in Phonics lessons in class as well as shared reading times. Children will also bring home flashcards and resources to support parents.  A log in for all children reading pink-orange banded books is given for Bug Club Phonic E-books. Parents may also wish to subscribe to phonics play , a useful interactive resource we use in school.

Getting the best out of Phonics Bug

If you are a parent then check out this video by Miss Olver that explains how you can use Phonics Bug to its full potential.

Ilsham English Hub

At St. Matthew's we work with the llsham English hub to further develop our expertise in teaching phonics. Below is some really useful support information and videos for parents about the teaching of phonics and early reading. 

How to pronounce letters correctly to help reading

Watch this video from Oxford Owl to see learn how to pronounce the letters correctly.  This will help you when you are helping your child to read.

Phonics training PowerPoint

This will give you a little more information about how we teach phonics in school.

parent-phonics-powerpoint.pdf

Phonics Screening Test

In June children in Year 1 sit a phonics screening test.  Children in Year 2 who did not meet the expected threshold in Year 1 also sit the test.  For information on what to expect, see the links below.

phonics-screening-checkphonics-screening-check-parent-workshop

Writing Overview

Intent summary

At St Matthew’s we aim for our children to:-

• Write clearly, accurately and cohesively adapting language and style for range of contexts, purposes and audiences.
• Develop positive attitudes toward writing. 
• To be able to write with a proficient awareness of grammar and punctuation.

Implementation summary

Opportunities, organisation and provision for the teaching and learning of writing are as follows:

Phonics and spelling: 

In EYFS and Year 1 We follow the Bug Club phonics programme for our children in Reception to Year 2. For children in Years 2 and above who need extra phonics practise due to not being at expected standard in Year 1 they access interventions. 

For children in Year 2 upwards children study their spellings through the Spelling Shed structured programme.

Emergent writing: 

In Nursery children are taught correct pencil grip and given opportunities to mark make and form letters.

In Reception children are given daily opportunities to further that learning through daily message centre writing. Over the year, they develop letter formation through being taught precursive handwriting and how to form simple phrases and sentences.  By the end of the year, some children are helped to combine sentences.

In Year 1 upwards we base our teaching of writing on Book Writes sequences (Devon CC).  The sequences are based around high quality texts that ensure:

• something worth discussing;
• rich language to enjoy, learn from, and explore in children’s own writing,
• a structure that can be replicated.

The three key writing strategies that children are taught are:

1. Learning about the text
2. Practising writing including short burst writing focused on grammar and punctuation
3. Independent writing

Handwriting: 

We teach children joined, cursive handwriting from the very beginning of the school. We begin with pre-cursive writing where they learn to write the lead in and exit strokes of letters.  We refer to this as 'whoosh in' and 'whoosh out' with the children at the beginning and end of each letter.  Once children are secure in this we move on to cursive.  All pupils are given weekly opportunities to practice their handwriting.  Once they are familiar and fluent with all common joins handwriting is most often done in the context of spelling.

Impact summary

Children will be equipped with a strong command of the written word and acquire a wide vocabulary, an understanding of grammar and knowledge of linguistic conventions for writing. Pupils will write clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences. Pupils will make at least good progress from their starting points. 

Use the links below to access useful resources

Writing Progression

Early Writing Powerpoint

pencil grip parent help sheetfull intent, implementation and impact document.

Cursive handwriting

At St.Matthew's we teach cursive handwriting to all children.  To begin with, for children in Reception we teach children pre-cursive writing where they learn to write the lead in and exit strokes of letters.  We refer to this as 'whoosh in' and 'whoosh out' with the children at the beginning and end of each letter.  Once children are secure in this we move on to joining the letters together within a word.

Suggested-Order-for-teaching-joined-handwriting.pdf