Reading at Stoke Park Junior School

We believe all pupils can achieve in reading; including reading for pleasure, comprehension and understanding. We do not put ceilings on any pupils' learning and do not hold pre-conceptions about their ability to make progress.  Through reading, we believe pupils develop culturally, emotionally, intellectually, socially and spiritually. It enables pupils to acquire knowledge and to build on what they already know.

Through a rich and varied curriculum, children are provided with a plethora of exciting books to explore. We ensure  children are given multiple opportunities to access and enjoy quality books through our Reading Challenge initiatives within each year group; our class reads; well stocked whole school and  class libraries and a curriculum driven by rich texts. We offer a well-balanced selection of books for children which are linked to concepts taught within other areas of study. Our aim is to embed a deep love of reading and offer wide experiences of reading to all our children; instilling a love of books and paving the way for future learning.

Phonics Provision

At Stoke Park Junior School, we support all children on their phonic journey with decoding and blending in order to read, using a synthetic approach to reading. Phonics are used to help segment words in order to spell and understand the intricacies of spelling rules and patterns. Bug Club phonics provides a multi-sensory approach to learning and offers continuity to pupils as they transition from our main infant feeder school.

Reading 

We continually update and restock our library of ‘Learn to Read’ books. These are colour banded and are closely matched to a child's phonic and comprehension needs and cover a wide range of themes which are engaging for all children. We use a range of decodable Bug Club books matched to the child's phonic ability, which allows them to practise reading  using their focus sounds. These are available both online and in book form to allow easy access. We ensure reading is both an enjoyable and positive experience for all children.  Reading fluency is promoted by children reading their books three times to ensure the development of their automaticity of decoding words, appropriate prosody to read expressively using intonation, as well as developing their ability to comprehend what they have read.

Reading for Pleasure

Every year group promotes reading at home through an engaging and age-appropriate reading challenge and incentives. Our well-stocked library provides children with weekly opportunities to select and share a ‘Love to Read’ book they can take home and share with their loved ones. The library is also open outside of the school day, to allow children the opportunity to select a book with a parent or carer. Children are actively encouraged to recycle previously loved books they no longer need and 'swap' them for another book in their year group book swap area. 

Writing 

Our curriculum is led by rich texts and exciting learning journeys, they provide children with the opportunity to explore and write for a variety of purposes and for different audiences. Within the curriculum, children are encouraged to develop their speaking and listening skills, through participation in discussions, debates, drama and role-play. Following HIAS learning journeys, our children are immersed in rich text drivers and are taught explicit grammar skills which are applied for effect within their writing.

Part of the writing journey includes teaching children fundamental spelling rules and patterns through a bespoke spelling programme. These programmes focus on developing a child's phonological awareness, their knowledge of the morphology of words through the application of spelling rules and patterns; building the semantics and visual forms of words and the etymology of words to understand their origin and meaning.

We use the Kinetic Letters handwriting programme to teach children how to form their letters correctly. As children continue their handwriting journey from our main infant feeder school, they learn how to join effectively in order to increase their fluency and stamina for writing.  

Our curriculum promotes the development and acquisition of new vocabulary to consolidate and extend a child's understanding. They are encouraged to apply and use new and ambitious words across their learning, both verbally and within their own writing, to embed their understanding as readers as well as writers. This is promoted through the use of academic (tier 2) and subject specific (tier 3) vocabulary.

Writing is a multi-faceted skills which requires the children to develop their own writing style and being able to make decisions about the vocabulary and grammar chosen for effect, in order to achieve the best writing outcome. At Stoke Park, children are taught to reflect on purpose, audience, form and viewpoint when writing. They collect and record their ideas on a 'writers toolkit’ and teachers consider these elements when designing tasks. Developing tasks which are engaging, immersive and have a clear outcome ensures our children develop a love of writing which promotes and ensures progress. During the writing journey, children are supported to reflect on their writing and develop editing skills in order to refine their work. A stepped approach to proof reading work for spelling and punctuation errors explores how to add or remove parts of a sentence in order to refine the effect of the writing on the reader.