St Nicholas Catholic Primary School
Reading at St Nicholas Catholic Primary School
|
At St Nicholas Catholic Primary School, we strive to promote high standards of English which equip each child with a strong command of the spoken and written word, and to develop their love of literature through widespread reading for enjoyment. We hold high expectations for all of our pupils and strive to inspire a love of reading and language which encourages our children to become life-long readers. We believe, reading feeds pupils’ imaginations and opens their minds to a land of wonder and curiosity. It is our aim, that by the end of St Nicholas Catholic Primary School, the children have been exposed to and engaged with a wide range of literature and are able to read fluently and with confidence.
|
Intent
At St Nicholas we are committed to providing a curriculum for all where every child grows:
- Academically
- Socially
- Morally
- In aspiration
- To be prepared for the next phase in their academic journey and be spiritually nourished.
To achieve excellence in all that they do in the knowledge that we love one another as God loves you.
|
Teaching and Learning of Reading Reading is one of our main priorities at St Nicholas Catholic Primary School. It is a skill which underpins a child’s abilities to access the wider curriculum and allows them to broaden their vocabulary and develop vivid imaginations. To ensure all pupils are given the best opportunity to succeed, we ensure that pupils are given daily teaching of reading that build on fluency and comprehension skills. |
|
Read Write Inc “If pupils cannot read, they will not be able to access the curriculum, and will be disadvantaged for life” Research for EIF framework, p20, 2019 As a core curriculum subject, English is a priority at St Nicholas Catholic Primary School. We encourage children to become resilient readers and confident communicators and reading is prioritised to enable all children to access the curriculum. Our consistent and rigorous approach to teaching early reading enables children to master the key skills that research suggests is important early on. To do this, we follow the Read Write Inc. programme; this sets out a sequence of lessons that teaches children to read accurately and fluently with good comprehension. They also learn to form each letter, spell correctly and compose their ideas step-by-step. Your child will:
For more information about how we teach Phonics, take a look at our Phonics website page. |
What does Reading look like at St Nicholas?
Reading VIPERS
Reading is taught through the use of targeted questioning (VIPERS) which focus on reading for meaning – teaching specific comprehension skills. VIPERS are integral throughout our English curriculum and feeds in to daily whole class guided reading sessions and weekly comprehension lessons. Children are also given opportunities for reading for pleasure within the classroom and in weekly visits to the schools lending library.
Key Stage One Talk Through Stories
As part of Read Write Inc, Key Stage One develop a love of stories and vocabulary through our teaching of Talk Through Stories. The aims within these sessions are to provide children with the breadth and depth of vocabulary in order for them to understand the books they will soon read independently. These session aim to encourage high quality conversations and discussions about books with teachers and peers and develop a love of reading.
Key Stage Two ERIC Sessions
ERIC (Everyone Reading in Class) reading sessions equips pupils with the necessary skills to be successful readers. They focus on building fluency and embedding comprehension skills, whilst also encouraging a love of reading and exposing learners to a wide range of texts, including classic literature, modern fictions and Shakespeare. Children participate in daily whole class reading sessions – a list of our ERIC novels is listed below.
ERIC sessions incorporate a mixture of the teacher reading to the learner as well as opportunities for every child to read aloud. Throughout the session, discussions are held about the book using the VIPER format to ask targeted questioning.
Vocabulary Ninjas
Vocabulary is a fundamental aim of our English and wider curriculum. Explicit and engaging vocabulary teaching has the power to promote independence in learners, ignite imaginations, deliver understanding and raise education standards in schools. Vocabulary Ninjas encourages the explicit teaching of vocabulary across the curriculum and throughout the reading curriculum in a fun and exciting way.
Comprehension Lesson
Comprehension lessons are taught weekly. They have a clear learning outcome and specific, age-appropriate reading skills, taken directly from the National Curriculum. Comprehension lessons aim to develop skills in:
- Vocabulary,
- Fluency and expression,
- Explicitly taught VIPERS skills.
St Nicholas Loves Reading
|
World Nursey Rhyme Week
At St Nicholas, we understand the importance of nursery rhymes in the early development of our children and their education. Nursery Rhymes host a wealth of benefits including: boosting vocabulary and language development, helping to improve both literacy and mathematical skills and helping our children to develop social, physical and emotional skills.
Nursey Rhymes are built into our curriculum, however we loved celebrating this extra special week in Reception and Key Stage One.
National Story Telling Week
To mark National Story Telling Week, we had a fun-filled week of story telling activities. Throughout the week, we invited parents in as our 'Secret Readers' to read to the children in their child's class. We finished the week with an exciting pyjama themed day, where we brought in our favourite bedtime stories and shared them with our classes!
Waterstones Trip
Miss McBride took a group of children to Waterstones to choose some new books for our class libraries! We had a fantastic time and picked some exciting and interesting books to read. We loved sharing them with all the children in our class and love to read them in our class reading areas.
A Love of Reading
St Nicholas Reading Café
We have loved having the parents in to join us at the St Nicholas Reading Café. We will be hosting these every half term. It is fantastic to see so many parents come and enjoy a book with their children!
The Secret Reader
Parents Stay and Read
We love inviting our children's parents in to school regularly to enjoy reading a story with their child!
World Book Day
St Nicholas Reading Café
We browsed the new books our peers bought for us in Waterstones at the reading café, led by the Year 6 librarians! We had a wonderful afternoon reading our new books with juice and biscuits.
Our Favourite Books
