Reading at Birstwith Church of England Primary School
At Birstwith CE School, we beileve that all our children can become fluent readers and writers, and using the Little Wandle programme, we deliver a systematic, synthetic phonics programme, starting in children's Reception year. This ensures that all children build strong foundations on which their growing knowledge of the alphabetic code and phonics, and it supports them to read and spell, as they move through school and beyond.
Our skilled teachers aim to develop a love of literature through exposure to a wide range of quality texts. We encourage the children to talk about books they have read and to recommend books they have enjoyed. Our curriulum is well planned and delivered by our experienced teaching staff. Fidelity to the Little Wandle systematic synthetic phonics programme provides a consistency to the teaching and learning of phonics. We follow Little Wandle for our Reception and Year 1 Phonics, Year 2 Spelling and Year 2 Fluency (reading).
Please use the link below to explore some incredibly useful resources at home to support your child's learning in phonics.
https://www.littlewandlelettersandsounds.org.uk/resources/for-parents/
When children are in Year 1, there is a statutory national Phonics Screening Check which is a quick check of children's phonic and decoding knowledge from Phase 2 to Phase 5 phonics. Please see the below PDF document for more information from Little Wandle.
High-quality texts
All of our children are exposed to a rich diet of high-quality texts, with teachers reading to their classes every day, for every child. These texts are carefully planned to include a broad range of genres, authors, subjects and those written from different time periods.
Poetry
At Birstwith School we value the importance of poetry in the rich diet of language we offer children. It is an important building block for literacy skills and language development, enabling children to become confident readers, writers and speakers. It introduces new vocabulary; allows children to play with words, letters and sounds; helps aide memory; and teaches children about rhythm and rhyme.
In the Early Years Foundation Stage, saying and learning poems (particularly when clapping/actions are added) can help children to develop early language and literacy skills, which form the foundations for future years. Whilst stories enable children to develop their ideas in a vertical thinking process, poetry on the other hand strives to more lateral thinking, enabling children to develop their imagination and creativity - encouraging a love of language. Research suggests that poetry encourages children to develop personal responses to what they read and hear, and writing poetry is a hybrid between imaginative writing and personal recounts, forming a platform for emotional intelligence development.
At Birstwith School, we have plan different types of poetry for each class to explore, create and perform throughout each school year. As our classes are mixed, our planning follows a rolling program. We value personal preference and children are exposed to a wide range of different poetry types spanning different eras/subjects/ genres/ cultures, and those written by both sexes. As the children get older, they meet more complex poems with imagery and figurative language. Through enjoying rhymes, poems and songs, and reciting poems or parts of longer poems together as a class, teachers can build children’s strong emotional connection to language.
Independent Reading
We value the importance of reading to an adult. In the Foundation stage and KS1 this is a frequent activity, with the children reading to teachers, teaching assistants and volunteers. We use Little Wandle decodable texts along with a class library to encourage reading for pleasure and expose children to a wide variety of text types.
In KS2 children continue to read their reading books to teachers, teaching assistants and volunteers. They read a range of other exciting and varied texts, through their work across the curriculum. They also develop the concentration skills to read to themselves and develop a love for reading. Children are able to explore our wide range of texts and make their own choice of books to read, increasingly understanding their preferences in genre, authors and styles of text.
The teachers' knowledge of each individual child’s needs and interests ensure that children are reading books which will allow plenty of opportunity to consolidate reading skills with the use of both phonically decodable books and other appropriate books of interest to the individual. We aim to enthuse and excite the children about the books they read.
Reading at Home
All children at Birstwith CE School have a school reading book matched to their current reading level. They are encouraged to take these books home to read to an adult and record their reading in their reading records. These records provide a valuable communication between school, home and child.
We welcome parental help in school and many members of the community regularly support the children in their reading within school. Children in KS1 often take home a 'sharing book' to share with their parents, who read the story to them. This develops the children’s ability to read picture clues and develops their speaking and listening skills in an enjoyable way, with an adult. There are a range of these books available including fiction/non-fiction, picture and longer chapter books.
Children's Book Award
We are involved in the ‘Red House Book Award’, where the children (and teachers – through reading to their class) read books and rate them. They then join all the other national scores and a short list of books for different ages is draw up. All children at Birstwith help to score the picture books and more confident readers help to score the junior shortlist. This gives real meaning and purpose to their reading and allows children to be critics of the books they read too.