Reading

At St Ambrose Catholic Primary School reading is a top priority and is a key driver for our curriculum. Therefore we have a Reading leadership team comprised of the English Lead, Head of School and Executive Principal.

We value reading as a key life skill and are dedicated to enabling our children to be life-long readers.

We want all our children to gain the skills needed to read with fluency and confidence to become avid readers – reading for pleasure and information.

Children will acquire a wide vocabulary, an understanding of grammar and knowledge of linguistic conventions for reading.

The development of literacy skills across the curriculum will be implemented according to the following guidelines:

• Teachers are expected to uphold high standards and deliver lessons of high-quality using effective and up-to-date teaching methods and tasks. Teachers are expected to impart knowledge accurately and with enthusiasm to generate high levels of commitment from children.
• Teachers plan exciting lessons following a clear learning journey (sequence of lessons)
• Staff will follow Literacy skills will be reinforced within our creative curriculum whereby children are provided with cross-curricular opportunities to read (research and related stories) and write (reflective and sustained writing) for a purpose.
• Whole school policies on presentation and feedback to ensure consistent high standards are seen in teaching and learning. Learners are regularly provided with opportunities to edit and improve their work in response to feedback.
• Pupils lacking basic literacy skills will be identified, and the special educational needs coordinator SENCO and literacy lead will advise teaching staff on supporting pupils with reading and writing difficulties.
• All assessment and testing will take place according to the school’s Assessment Policy.
• Teaching, interventions and revision programmes are adjusted in the light of progress children make.
• Enrichment opportunities are provided for children to encourage children to have an appreciation of and discuss a wide variety of books, authors and illustrators e.g. World Book Day.
• Classrooms will have learning walls and will be vocabulary rich to ensure children’s learning and language development. The learning environment will support and inspire all pupils to succeed.
• Each classroom will have a reading corner where children are encouraged to read for pleasure and each child will have access to a fully stocked library where they can log out books to take them home.
• Children in Key Stage Two will continue to read levelled Oxford Reading Tree banded non-fiction and fiction books to ensure that each child continues to get a varied and appropriately challenging reading diet. Each level introduces new things and practises the skills and knowledge learned in the previous levels with age appropriate content. This will be supplemented with books they want to read from home and our school library.
• Regular book trawls and learning walks will indicate that at least good progress is seen across the school and regular shared feedback is given to teaching staff on best practice.
• We recognise that reading is fundamental to the writing process. From blending phonics to building words and sentences, to using a text as an inspiration for structure, theme and atmosphere, reading forms the essential starting point of any child’s writing journey.

   

Children embed knowledge and use it fluently. Children know the goal, the end point for their learning and how the knowledge and skills taught in each lesson will help them get there on their learning journey. More Able learners are able to showcase this knowledge and skills to a deeper level.

Vulnerable groups such as SEND/Most Able/EAL/Pupil Premium perform at least in line with their peers nationally and are given the opportunities and knowledge to succeed in life. 

Children are able to confidently read to an age-appropriate level and with fluency in line (at least) with their peers nationally. As a result, they can therefore access all subjects across the curriculum with confidence and enjoyment.

Children’s vocabulary is improved across the school and is extensive by the end of Year 6. This is seen in class discussions, understanding of passages in texts and in written pieces of writing.

Pupil voice indicates that children enjoy reading and they want to read a wide variety of books. Children use our school library frequently and take part in reading enrichment activities such as World Book Day.

Book Trawls, Lessons observations and learning walks indicate that all children are taught a broad and rich curriculum.

At St Ambrose we use fully decodable resources to establish confident readers in Key Stage 1. The books provide our children with a rich and varied choice of writing styles, genres and artwork styles to enjoy.

We follow the Oxford Owl levelling structure designed to support the teaching of reading in class and to ensure that when a child takes a book home they can read it successfully, build confidence and make progress. All our books are banded into levels and a 'level' of a book is determined by a number of factors. These factors include phonic knowledge, vocabulary, sentence length, number of words on a page and use of illustrations.

The point at which a child is secure, confident at a given level and ready to move up a band is determined by the class teacher through regular assessment. It is important to bear in mind that not all levels are of equal size. In the first few years of school, the steps of progress are fairly small, and children will move through a number of levels quite quickly. As children move up the levels, the steps become broader and ‘moving up’ happens less frequently. 

In Key Stage 2 children continue to read levelled Oxford Reading Tree banded non-fiction and fiction books to ensure that each child continues to get a varied and appropriately challenging reading diet. Each level introduces new things and practises the skills and knowledge learned in the previous levels with age appropriate content.

Boom reader is a digital reading record used by teachers, parents and pupils to log reading.

Go contactless! Boom reader removes the need for paper copies of reading records. No more back and forward, and no more lost record books!

Children can also add home books to their 'Boom reader' account. We would love to see what books your child is interested in reading at home.

Please watch the following videos to see how you can help you child read at home.

What our community says about reading at St Ambrose...

"I don't just like reading, I love it." (Reception)

"Reading takes you to new places." (Year Four)

"Books are better than films because they give more details and you can imagine more." (Year Six)

"We have loved the library sessions, please can we have more." (Parent)

"Thank you for the reading workshop, it was very informative. The handouts will be useful." (Parent)

"It was lovely to get to see the classroom. It was good to learn what they are doing in reading in school so I can replicate it at home." (Parent)

Year 5 pupils launched a lunchtime book club for Key Stage One children and introduced it in an assembly.