Reading at St Mary's
At St. Mary’s we love reading!
We begin teaching reading with a focus on phonics and we use the RWI programme. The foundations are laid in Nursery where the focus is, first of all, on developing a love for looking at books, careful and accurate listening and having fun with sounds, words and sentences. The children learn good reading behaviour by imitating our teachers’ excellent models. Our children are encouraged to ‘read’ words and captions around our text rich learning environment. The RWI phonics programme continues in Reception and into Key Stage 1.
Parents are invited to phonics meetings so that they are better able to help their children at home. The children are assessed every half term in order to effectively track progress and are grouped accordingly. Our phonics screening check results have increased each year and continue to stay above the national average.
Once children have completed the RWI phonics programme in Year 2, they continue to develop their love of reading through studying a range of different class books.
During the Early Years and Key Stage 1, children take a reading book home every week to practise their reading skills and to continue their reading development at home with their families. Most of these books are Oxford Reading Tree books, and children are assessed half-termly to ensure they are on the correct reading band.
In Key Stage 2, children are given the opportunity to change their own books within their reading band. In addition to this, we take years 2 to 6 to visit the local library in Brewood every term. Children can also visit the school library, where our school librarians are only too happy to help and they can return or change them when they have finished reading.
Each classroom has a reading corner where children can choose their own books to read in the classroom. All year groups from years 1 to 6 participate in guided reading sessions where they share the book together.
Every year we celebrate World Book day and all the children and staff dress up as their favourite book character. All the children love sharing their favourite stories together.
How to help your child when you are reading with them