Reading at St. Philip's
'Reading is at the heart of the school’s curriculum.' -Ofsted, November 2023
Our Intent Statement
At St. Philip's, our children read at home for 15 minutes every day. In Foundation Stage and Key Stage One, you comment on your child's reading in their reading journal after you have listened to them read. You might describe what you have talked about, a particular phoneme you focused on or something that they are finding difficult. In the back of your child's reading journal, you will find examples of questions you can ask your child about their book. In Key Stage Two, our children write their own comments in their reading journals where they might explain something that they have learnt, list new vocabulary they have found or ask questions to further develop their understanding.
The book that your child brings home are part of the Oxford Reading Tree scheme. The colour band that your child is reading at is continually assessed to ensure that they are reading a book with the appropriate level of challenge.
At St. Philip's, we promote a love of reading and one of the ways we do this is through our school library. Each class visits the library every week where they borrow a book to take home. Here the children have the opportunity to follow their particular interests as they might choose a book by their favourite author or around a subject that they are learning about in class. Our wonderful school librarians, not only help keep our library organised, but they will also help you find a new genre of book or author that you might not have considered before.
The adults in your child's class will listen to them read frequently. In Reception and Year One this is on a one to one basis. From Year Two to Year Six, all the children read the same text in Guided Reading and there is more focus on developing comprehension.
Reception and Year Six children and Year One and Year Five children also buddy up to read together. Not only does this develop our youngest children's reading skills but oldest children develop their questioning skills as well as setting an excellent example of reading.
At the end of every day everything stops for story time where the whole class gathers together to share another high quality text. This maybe a book that the teacher or a child has chosen, a book from the class book area where the children can return to it later or a class novel.
We are very lucky here at St. Philip's to have some of our parents who volunteer to listen to our children read. These volunteers work in different classes across the school and support the children in many ways. If you are interested in becoming a reading volunteer at our school, Mrs Morland our reading lead, would love to hear from you.
Becoming Fluent Readers
Here at St. Philip's, our children learn how to become readers not just learn how to read. Comprehension is an outcome of reading not our main focus; that is fluency.
Guided reading lesson time is used to develop our children's ability to become fluent readers and as a result our children enjoy reading because they understand more of what they are reading. In Years Two and Three, the children echo read after the teacher and in Years Four, Five and Six the focus is on partner reading. Watch the video clips below to see and hear our fluency sessions in action....
Echo Reading
Partner Reading