ST. ANNE’S CATHOLIC
PRIMARY SCHOOL
Reading Policy
“The whole World opened to me, when I learned to read.”
Mary McLeod Bethune
Marina Crescent
Huyton
Liverpool L36 5XL
ST ANNE’S CATHOLIC PRIMARY SCHOOL
POLICY FOR TEACHING READING
“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places
you will go.” Dr Seuss
OVERVIEW
The first stage in helping children to become confident readers and enjoy books is teaching them the key
phonetic skills that they need; how to decode words. Our philosophy will be driven by the determination that
every child in this school will learn to read regardless of social and economic circumstances, ethnicity, the
language spoken at home and most special educational needs or disabilities. We also aim to inspire
children to have a life-long love of reading, as a school we adopt many ‘reading for pleasure’ activities to
encourage children to achieve this.
OBJECTIVES
1. To achieve very high standards in reading and children’s comprehension of what they read.
2. To apply a very rigorous and sequential approach to developing speaking and listening and
teaching reading, writing and spelling.
3. To have an effective programme for phonics teaching based on a high-quality synthetic phonics
scheme; Read, Write Inc.
4. To have in place diligent, concentrated and systematic teaching of phonics so that it is central to
children’s success in learning to read.
5. To use high-quality and expert teaching that follows the carefully planned and tightly structured
approach to word decoding and comprehension skills. This allows children to develop their use of
inference and deduction skills.
6. To adopt a consistent approach to teaching reading skills through; Read Write Inc, Guided and
Reciprocal Reading (KS2)
KEY STRATEGIES
1. We will use systematic phonics and other appropriate strategies.
2. Pupils will be given opportunities to apply what they have learnt through reading – including time to
read aloud to adults to practise their decoding skills – writing and comprehension of what they are
reading.
3. We will have a planned structure, fast pace, praise and reinforcement, perceptive responses, active
participation by all children and evidence of progress.
4. Teachers and Teaching Assistants will be highly trained in the principles of phonics, so that they
can identify the learning needs of young children and recognise and overcome the barriers that
impede learning
5. The curriculum will give children rich opportunities to talk and listen in a wide range of contexts. This
will contribute to developing their familiarity with books and stories and their knowledge of the
meanings of words.
6. We have a language rich curriculum with core texts attributed to each year group, this allows for
progression in reading skills as the children become more confident.
7. There will be a strong focus on developing the children’s capacity to listen, concentrate and
discriminate between sounds.
8. Phonics and other teaching strategies will be monitored to ensure consistency and appropriate
action will be taken if improvement is called for.
9. Pupils will be taught to read fluently including extended prose (both narrative and non-narrative)
10. The assessment of individual pupils’ progress in reading will be frequent and detailed to identify
quickly the pupils who are failing, or in danger of failing, to keep up with their peers.
11. Effective provision for those who are struggling to keep up will be put in place early and there will be
high expectations of what all pupils should achieve
12. Children will be involved in the assessment of their progress and receive regular supportive
feedback on their work.
13. Children who are struggling to read will be given individual support which will be carefully attuned to
overcoming barriers to their phonological development.
14. The monitoring of the implementation of the programme, especially the quality of the teaching, and
the evaluation of the impact of the programme on pupils’ decoding and spelling skills will be given
priority within our school’s strategy for self-evaluation.
Reading for Pleasure
“When children read for pleasure, when they get “hooked on books”, they
acquire, involuntarily and without conscious effort, nearly all of the so-called
“language skills” many people are so concerned about: they will become
adequate readers, acquire a large vocabulary, develop the ability to
understand and use complex grammatical constructions, develop a good
writing style, and become good (but not necessarily perfect) spellers.
Although free voluntary reading alone will not ensure attainment of the
highest levels of literacy, it will at least ensure an acceptable level. Without it,
I suspect that children simply do not have a chance.” (Krashen, 1993)
At St Anne’s we believe that ‘reading for pleasure’ is an integral skill which is central to a child’s
development. Indeed we aim to encourage and foster this love of reading through a whole curriculum
which has reading at the centre of our activities. We aim to do this through a number of ways and
through some key strategies implemented;
Reading Buddies
The Big Read
Independent Reading Time
Reciprocal Reading
Class Readers- 1 per half term.
Super text half termly activities linked to specific themes and texts
Kindles and IPads as e-readers
Reading Sanctuary
Each class has a specific reading display linked to the class text.
CONCLUSION
The development of speaking and listening reading and writing will be the top priority for our children.
Teaching reading will be the central strategy in developing children’s literacy across the curriculum and
teachers plan to include reading skills in all subjects. They will develop all the key elements of word
recognition, decoding, recognising the link between letters and sounds that will leading to
understanding of meaning and language comprehension. In later years as children develop their
comprehension skills they will be encouraged to read widely and for pleasure.
At St. Anne’s, we aim for children to be confident readers who develop a love of reading.
September 2015
St. Anne’s Primary Suggested Texts- by Year Group.
Nursery
Trish Cooke
Eric Carle
Pat Hutchings
Michael
Rosen
Helen
Oxenbury
Traditional
tales
Reception
Jez
Allborough
Martin
Waddell
John
Burmingham
Jill Murphy
Alexis Deacon
Traditional
tales
Year 1
Ahlbergs
(Happy
Families)
Nick Sharratt
David McKee
Emily Gravett
Colin
McNaughton
Traditional
tales
Year 2
Roald Dahl
Julia
Donaldson
Anthony
Browne
Lynley Dodd
Shirley
Hughes
Traditional
tales
Year 3
Anne Fine
Jenny Nimmo
Dick King
Smith
Astrid
Lindgren
Jill MurphyThe Worst
Witch
Fables/ Fairy
tales with a
twist
Year 4
Anthony
Browne
Roald Dahl
Joan Aiken
Diana Wynne
Jones
Ted Hughes
Stories from
other
cultures
Year 5
Phillip
Pullman
Berlie
Doherty
Michael
Morpurgo
Philippa
Pearce
JK Rowling
Myths
Year 6
David Almond
Lewis Carroll
Anthony
Horowitz
Neil Gaiman
Frank Cottrell
Boyce
Legends and
Sagas