READING INTENT:
At Christ Church CE Primary School, we value reading as a key life skill and are dedicated to enabling our pupils to become lifelong readers. We believe that all pupils should have the opportunity to be fluent, confident readers who are able to successfully comprehend and understand a wide range of texts.
It is our intention to immerse pupils in the wonders of quality texts (from a range of authors and across the
curriculum) to instil a love for reading, a passion for discovery and a confidence to explore their imagination through our Book-Led curriculum. We want to inspire children to be confident in the art of speaking, listening and discussion and be secure in their knowledge of reading, using this all to support them in their writing.
WRITING INTENT:
Our intent is to provide pupils with a high-quality education in English that will develop pupils' ability to speak, read and write with great fluency, master the mechanics of both reading and writing and develop a love and true interest for English so that they can communicate their thoughts, ideas and emotions effectively. This means, that by the end, children will have the phonetic knowledge and spelling rules to be able to write. They will have an awareness of the different sentence types and language for effect. Children will know about different genres and text types which will be reflected in their own writing. They will also be clear on the purpose of their writing which is to inform, entertain of persuade.
For our complete Intent, Implement and Impact document, please find the download link within the 'Whole School | General Resources' tab below.
PHONICS - READ WRITE INC
At Christ Church C.E Primary School, we use a systematic synthetic approach to teaching phonics through the DFE accredited Read Write Inc programme - a programme that creates fluent readers, confident speakers and willing writers by the end of Key Stage 1.
Children begin phonics in Nursery which focuses on growing children’s vocabulary through role-play, discussion, building sentences and using productive questioning. It places huge emphasis on developing children’s love of reading through enticing story and poetry times. By the last term of Nursery, children participate in speed sound sessions, where children are taught to say the sounds of letters with the help of mnemonics, to blend the sounds into words and read simple word blending books. This gives them a flying start before going into the Reception class.
In Reception children will continue where they left off from nursery and new starters will be assessed. In Reception and Year 1, children are grouped based on ability to ensure that they make rapid progress in accuracy and fluency of reading. Children are assessed at the end of each half term to ensure accurate groupings and to make sure that children making slower progress are identified. In the Early Years and Year 1, phonics is embedded into the environment, giving children the opportunity to apply their phonic skills during independent learning time. Children will continue on the RWI phonics programme until they are confident and fluent readers: most children are off the programme at the end of Year 1.
In Year 2, some children will continue to access Read Write Inc phonics (if they did not pass the phonics Screening assessment). These children will be assessed half-termly and be moved off the programme when they are ready. Once children have completed Read Write Inc phonics, they then move onto the Read Write Inc Spelling.
For support or help with Phonics, please visit our Phonics page.
We expose our children to a wide range of texts and genres which means that they are able to read for a range of purposes and expand their interests and passions. The skills that our children learn from EYFS to Year 6 are carefully mapped out, to ensure clear progression; these are in line with current National Curriculum expectations.
To view our Long Term Plan for Novels from EYFS - Year 6, please find the download link within the 'Whole School | General Resources' tab below.
We focus on different strands of reading in both word reading and comprehension. In comprehension, we begin with retrieval, explanation and comparison. In EYFS, re-reading books to build confidence and understanding; progressing to discussing, comparing and evaluating in depth across a wide range of genres in Year 6. We begin in Year 1 by making simple inferences about texts such as what has happened, and progress to comparing and analysing different accounts of the same event. In Year 1 the children follow the RWI Get Writing Scheme which complements their Phonics learning. From Year 3 upwards, there is a focus on developing a knowledge of root words, prefixes and suffixes and their relationship in texts when reading aloud which allows us to develop our fluency.
During the course of the week, children will listen to a teacher reading, take part in paired reading, do some independent reading and complete reading tasks. Throughout the week, the focus of reading sessions change. The skills that are being practised daily could be; inference, retrieval, explanation, comparison, sequencing, summarising or predicting. One day per week we have a vocabulary focus
where children are exposed to a wide range of vocabulary that links to their topic and they are expected to use it in a variety of ways.
Throughout the year, we choose texts to ensure that we cover a range of genres and topics. In Early Years we use picture books such as The Gruffalo, look at classics like Beauty and the Beast and study poetry and non-fiction texts about Africa and animals.
When we enter Key Stage 1, we study texts by the same author, look at recounts and non-fiction articles about historical events and read adventure fiction.
In Key Stage 2, we study historical texts, enjoy mysteries and delve into the world of plays. We use a wide range of mediums to study reading, including videos, images, song lyrics and graphic novels, amongst others.
Reading for pleasure is integrated through the provision so that children always have access to books in addition to their English and phonics lessons. This is a mix of both the adult reading and independent reading from the children.
All children are listened to read on a half termly basis (by their class teacher) and additional weekly
support is given by LSAs. This is monitored closely to track progress. Please remember that your child's reading record is in school each day and that it is signed 5 times per week as per our home-school agreement.
Pathways to Write and Pathways to Poetry
Writing is taught through the Pathways to Write scheme. The texts have been matched to each year group which encourages all readers to develop writing across a range of different genres. Using our focus text to guide writing opportunities encourages creativity and sustains interest and enthusiasm for writing. Each term children will explore a new Poem through the Pathways to Poetry scheme. The poems and texts have been chosen to celebrate 'old and gold, new and bold' poems and texts that we all love to read.
Handwriting is developed right from nursery following the ISHA 'Achieving Excellence in Handwriting' programme which promotes excellent handwriting and high quality presentation skills.
To view any additional information, please find the download links within the 'Writing, Spelling & Grammar' tab below.
Talk and P4C:
At Christ Church, our Talk Project increases discussion between children to enhance reasoning skills as well as helping our pupils become more confident speakers. Our Talk Promises are a guideline to effective pupil talk within the classroom. The talk promises were developed by staff and pupils across the partnership.
Our Talk Promises are:
We show we are listening by looking at the speaker.
We join in because all ideas lead to learning.
We speak in full sentences in a clear voice that can be heard by everyone.
We give each other time to think.
We build on, or challenge with respect, each other’s ideas.
We ask questions if we don’t understand or would like to learn more.
To view any additional information, please find the download links within the 'Talk & P4C' tab below.
