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Stewart Fleming Primary School

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Reading

Subject Leader Statement

"By encouraging a love of reading, we empower children to express themselves confidently and creatively, fostering a lifelong passion for language and literature. At Stewart Fleming, we believe that reading is the gateway to learning."

Curriculum Intent

A student at Stewart Fleming should be able to express themselves across a variety of genres, using both written and oral methods. This is achieved through exposing children to a variety of sources so that they can express themselves through reading, writing and speaking. Enabling pupils to express themselves creatively across multiple mediums prepares them for life after Stewart Fleming. Through an understanding that reading is the foundation to learning, English at Stewart Fleming provides opportunities for all pupils, regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, attainment or background.

The curriculum at SF is designed to ensure clear progression in each year group. This is so the children can use the skills taught explicitly in their own independent work. If you were to read a diary entry in year 2 it would be different to one in Year 4. In English, children focus on a book(thematic) each term and teachers plan their genres through this. Across the academic year, the texts the children are exposed to allow them to write confidently in a variety of genres. The wealth of different texts also ensures that children enjoy reading and listening to different stories because the texts used in the school reflect the school community.

Our curriculum is innovative because the texts that the children use represent them. A blend of traditional literature and modern classics ensure that no child in the school ends their journey with us without seeing themselves represented. This in turn motivates the children to want to excel in the subject. At Stewart Fleming Primary School we strive for children to be a ‘Primary Literate Pupil’. We aim to develop pupils’ skills within an integrated programme of speaking and listening, reading and writing, and then extended through all areas of the curriculum.

The curriculum is carefully sequenced through the use of progression maps taken directly from the national curriculum and then applied to the wealth of different texts that we use at SF. In addition to this, teachers use medium term plans to ensure that each genre is carefully partitioned into the skills needed to write fluently within them. With regular monitoring, the children in every year group have opportunities to write within every genre expected of them at any stage of their education.

By the time children leave SF children should be able to express themselves orally, through written methods and through the medium of drama. This is important to us as we strongly believe in the importance of our students becoming valuable members of society.

The Power of Reading

The Power of Reading is a whole school development project, which engages children and teachers in the literacy curriculum with high quality books and creative teaching approaches.

Below shows the books used to deliver our English curriculum.

Year 1

Year 2

Year 3

Year 4

Year 5

Year 6

Cross-Curricular Literacy Opportunities

The skills that children are taught in Literacy underpin all other subjects. They enable pupils to communicate and express themselves in all areas of their work. Teachers will always make cross-curricular links wherever appropriate and will plan for pupils to apply the skills, knowledge and understanding that they have acquired during Literacy to other areas of the curriculum.

Reading

At Stewart Fleming, we believe that reading is the gateway to all learning. A confident reader is therefore equipped to access all aspects of the curriculum. As a result, our curriculum is designed that reading is an integral part of every lesson: it is not just a focus during reading and English.

Our youngest learners learn to decode through the Little Wandle Phonics scheme- please visit our phonics page for more information. Children remain on the scheme until they are confident in segmenting and blending.

In KS2, our children follow a carefully planned reading curriculum designed to promote a love of reading. They are exposed to variety of text types and apply their skills of retrieval, vocabulary, inference, summary and prediction throughout the week. Guided reading sessions take place for 20-30 minutes each day. Pupils read with the teacher in a guided group session once a week. The group will be given a follow up activity linked to the guided group text during the next couple of days. Other activities the groups will take part in during a week include; silent, independent reading, phonics and comprehension. Children who require additional support with reading normally receive more regular opportunities with another adult.

Every class stops and reads for 15 minutes at the end of the day. The class novel is designed to be a challenge for the children to read independently but it is imperative that they can enjoy stories regardless of their reading attainment.

Foundation and Key Stage 1 classes enjoy and participate in story time sessions reguarly. Teachers in Key Stage 2 regularly share a range of narrative and non-narrative texts with the whole class.

Each class has a book corner. Foundation and Key Stage 1 have equipment for listening to a story and other texts. As part of home reading, children should be selecting and reading a book appropriate to their level 3 times a week. We encourage parents/carers to hear their child read unless they are at a level where the pupils can assess their own reading. Feedback on home reading is made by parents/carers or pupils within the Home Reading Records.

For the Love of Reading

In the document below, there are some alternate ideas to truly engage your child in reading. In addition to this, there are some question prompts for you to use when listening to your child read. Click on the link below to find some exciting ideas that you can try with your child.

For the Love of Reading.pdf

Reading Lists

Below you will find a recommended reading list for each year group. These are high quality texts which promise to engage and challenge even the most reluctant of readers! It is important that children are encouraged and supported with their reading and are choosing books that are age appropriate.

EYFS

Year 1

Year 2

Year 3

Year 4

Year 5

Year 6

Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar

A good spelling programme gradually builds pupils’ spelling vocabulary therefore, when children enter Key Stage 2 they will have discreet ‘Support for Spelling’ lessons three times a week. During these lessons children begin to understand the principles underpinning word construction, recognise how to apply these principles in their writing and develop the skills for proof reading. In Year 6 children are required to take a 'Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar’ test. We endeavour to prepare children for this test as early as possible and therefore make spelling and grammar a key priority in all curriculum areas.

Vocabulary and Grammar New Curriculum

Grammar Terminology

Grammar Definitions

Drama and Role Play

At Stewart Fleming Primary School we strongly believe that the more experiences children have the better writers they become. We therefore place a strong emphasis on bringing drama and role play into our literacy lessons, allowing the children to recreate those fantasy worlds that they so often read about. Hotseating, teacher in role and freeze frames are just some examples of the types of activities your children will experience through our diverse literacy curriculum.