Reading curriculum

Index

Intent

At Saint James, we believe that everyone can and will become a fluent and confident life-long reader, who loves books. They will be able to communicate effectively and work with others, understanding they may have different points of view.

They will develop a love of and confidence with reading so they can keep learning after they have left school and do the things they need to do in society. It develops creativity, imagination and is a way of expressing themselves.

They will be able to stand up for what they think is right and draw on knowledge and experiences from their reading to explain their point of view and make positive change in society.

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Implementation

Lowest 20%

Through teacher assessment, RWI assessments, PIRA and 1:1 reading we identify those with a gap and tailor support to enable them to make rapid progress. This support includes fast tracking RWI tutoring, paired reading, daily 1:1 fluency practise, SHINE interventions, precision teaching, lexia and supporting children with book choice.

Reading in KS2

Children who need to catch-up are given a package of support tailored to their needs. All children take part in a daily reading lesson around a carefully selected whole class text. These sessions are focussed around a reading skill or fluency. Every day, the teacher reads to the children and children read for, to and with throughout the curriculum.

Love of reading

At Saint James, we want children to love reading and a diverse range of books. We promote a love of books through our yearly 40 books challenge, book talk in class, opportunities to share/talk about book, book events, our new library, engaging reading environments and teacher sharing books with the class daily.

Phonics - RWI

Read Write Inc (RWI) is a consistent, rigorous and dynamic literacy programme which teaches EVERY child following it to read as early in their school careers as possible. Using synthetic phonics, children learn to quickly blend letter sounds together by following a fun and effective programme. The aim is to get children through the programme quickly ensuring that they become fluent and confident readers

Reading lessons

Reading lessons are focussed around high quality texts and we take a mastery approach to the teaching of reading. Teachers use creative, engaging task design with lots of opportunities for dialogic talk. We develop both reading fluency and reading skills in reading lessons, following the national curriculum. We use a mixture of whole class and grouped guided reading to meet the needs of the children

Reading in wider curriculum

Reading is at the centre of everything we do. We find opportunities to teach through books, stories and poems in all areas of the curriculum to give children opportunities to read a wider range of texts by different authors, set in different cultures, setting and with a range of characters.

Reading in KS1

Reading in KS1 is a balance of learning to read, becoming fluent readers, developing reading skills and learning to love reading. This is achieved by having a reading rich environment, RWI, whole class guided reading, 1:1 reading, reading to the class, poetry and rhyme time and engaging parents in reading.

Reading environment

We celebrate and love reading. Our library takes pride of place at the centre of the school. Every class demonstrates their love of reading by creating an environment that shows reading is valued and important.

Parental engagement

Parents are integral to their children’s progress in reading. We invite parents to workshops, where they learn how to support their children with reading. We use reading records so that there is a 2-way communication with parents about their child’s reading progress. We also send home books that are careful matched to their child’s reading stage so that they have the resources they need to effectively support their chid. Every year group has 40 recommended books for their year group. Children need to read and respond to the books and they can earn star pin badges for reading books throughout the year.

EYFS reading

Learning to read is one of the most important things a child will ever learn. It underpins everything else We want our children to develop a real love of reading and to want to read for themselves. This is why we work hard to make sure children develop a love of books as well as the mechanics of learning to read.

Read To and Read Arounds

Every class is read to daily. Teachers carefully select texts that may link to the current key text by author, theme or topic so that the children are hearing a wide range of texts. These may be different styles, cultures, characters and settings.

Progression in reading

We have carefully put together progression of skill documents for reading to ensure children are making the progress they should with key reading skills through schools. We have also carefully planned key texts across the curriculum, showing clear progression in reading.

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Impact

Through the teaching of systematic phonics, our aim is for children to become fluent readers by the end of Key Stage 1. With decoding taught as the prime approach to reading, pupils will become familiar with this strategy and have the confidence to work out unfamiliar words in any new texts they encounter even when they have come to the end of the RWI programme. Pupils will have the opportunity to develop their fluency and comprehension as they move through the school; accessing a range of texts independently.

Attainment in reading is measured using statutory assessments such as the end of EYFS, Key Stage 1 and 2 and following the outcomes in the Year 1 Phonics Screening check. Additionally, we track our own reading attainment through the use of RWI half termly and screening assessments, PIRA reading papers and 1:1 reading sessions plus ongoing teacher assessment.

More importantly, we believe that reading is the key to unlock all learning and so the impact of our reading goes beyond the statutory assessments. We give all the children the opportunity to enter the amazing new worlds that a book opens up to them and share texts from a range of cultures or genres to inspire them to question or seek out more for themselves. We want reading to be the golden thread running through a child’s journey at Saint James. When they leave us, we want pupils to possess the reading skills and love of literature which will help them to enjoy and access any aspects of learning they encounter in the future. We want our children to be global citizens who have gained the cultural capital they need from reading to be able to make positive change in our society.

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Curriculum overview

A summary of the Reading curriculum can be found in the accordian container below:

Warning For additional information regarding the curriculum please email our Curriculum Leader

Year 1 curriculum

Core texts

• Frockodile
• Tidy

Parralel texts

• Poles Apart
• What a Wonderful World
• Oi Cat

Core texts

• Terrific Toys

Parralel texts

• Little Bear Lost
• Lost Toy Museum
• Where's My Teddy?

Core texts

• A Little Bit Brave
• Laika the Astronaut

Parralel texts

• The Great Explorer
• The Little Rocket
• The Bear and the Piano

Core texts

• The Lion Inside
• The Wonkey Donkey

Parralel texts

• The Ant and the Grasshopper
• Meerkat Mail
• Mr Tiger goes Wild
• Fantastic Mr Fox

Core texts

• The Hundred Decker Bus
• All Are Welcome

Parralel texts

• Voices in the Park
• Captain Tom Moore

Core texts

• Little Red Reading Hood

Parralel texts

• Little Red and the Very Hungry Lion

Year 2 curriculum

Core texts

• The Bear and the Piano

Parralel texts

• One Day on our Blue Planet
• Dear Greenpeace
• The Bear and the Piano the Dog and the Fiddle

Core texts

• Toby and the Great Fire of London

Parralel texts

• You wouldn't want to be in the Great Fire of London!

Core texts

• The Queen's Orang-utan

Parralel texts

• Katie in London

Core texts

• Samson's Titanic Journey

Parralel texts

• The Story of the Titanic for Children
• The Great Explorer

Core texts

• Anna Hibiscus

Parralel texts

• Why Monkey's Swing in the Trees
• Manya Panya's Pancakes

Core texts

• Jack and the Baked Bean Stalk

Parralel texts

• Inside the Villains

Year 3 curriculum

Core texts

• The Hunter
• Grandad Mandela Nelson Mandela Long Walk to Freedom

Parralel texts

• The Invisible Dog
• The Hodgeheg
• King Max the Last
• Dumpling

Core texts

• Bear Grylls Adventures
• Survival Camp
• Ultimate Survival Guide for Kids

Parralel texts

• Ug
• Cave Baby
• Winter's Child

Core texts

• The Iron Man
• The List Thing

Parralel texts

• The Iron Woman

Core texts

• Roman Tales The Fatal Fire
• Escape from Pompeii

Parralel texts

• Romans Jail Break!
• Julius Zebra

Core texts

• Leon the Place Between

Core texts

• A Walk in London
• The Royal Rabbits of London

Year 4 curriculum

Core texts

• Arthur and the Golden Rope
• Leo and the Gorgons

Parallel texts

• Marcy and the Riddle of the Sphinx

Core texts

• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Parralel texts

• The Magic Finger of Esio
• The Twits
• James and the Giant Peach
• Danny Champion of the World
• Matilda

Core texts

• Greenling

• Journey

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Core texts

• The Wild Robot

• It fell from the sky

• Barnabus Project

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Core texts

• Varjak Paw
• The Dam

Core texts

• How to Train Your Dragon

Parralel texts

• Dragonology

Year 5 curriculum

Core texts

• The Explorer

Parralel texts

• Great Adventurers
• Wild Animals of the South

Core texts

• War Game

Parralel texts

• Stories of WW!
• The Christmas Tree
• Where the Poppies now Grow
• Good Night Stories Rebel Girls

Core texts

• Kensuke's Kingdom

Parralel texts

• Survivors
• The Lost Book of Adventure

Core texts

• Who Let the Gods Out

Parralel texts

• Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief
• Blue Moon Mountain
• Mythical Beasts and Magical Creatures

Core texts

• George's Secret Key to the Universe

Parralel texts

• Space
• Great Woman Scientists and Their Stories
• Hidden Figures

Core texts

• Secrets of a Sun King

Parralel texts

• Artemis Fowl
• Marcy Riddle Sphinx
• Tutankhamun
• Egyptology

Year 6 curriculum

Core texts

• Short!
• The Girl who Stole an Elephant

Parralel texts

• Atlas of Adventures Wonders of the World
• Short and Spooky

Core texts

• Alex Rider Stormbreaker

Parralel texts

• Alex Rider The Gadgets
• Wildspark
• Great Adventurers

Core texts

• Floodland

Parralel texts

• The Lost Book of an Adventure

Core texts

• Letters from the Lighthouse

Parralel texts

• High Flight WW2 Poetry

Core texts

• Polar Bear Explorers Club

Parralel texts

• Unusual Creatures

Core texts

• Macbeth

Parralel texts

• Hamlet

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Subject leader

Miss Achilles
Teacher

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