Reading is one of the most important subjects we teach at Quarry Bank Primary School. Wherever possible we promote the love of reading and we embed texts throughout our whole curriculum.

English is currently led by Mrs Roff, with Miss Nicholls leading Phonics.

Below are the principles we apply when we teach reading and the Reading Strategy.

Phonics at Quarry Bank Primary School

We implement a phonics scheme called Sounds Write. The scheme is aligned to our existing pedagogy and has a significant body of research and case studies that demonstrate its effectiveness and impact on reading.

If parents want to learn more about Sounds Write phonics and how they can support their children at home. Please complete this free online Sounds Write training course. 

Sounds-Write begins with the sounds of the English language and teaches children the matching spelling correspondences. Through the Sounds-Write approach, children master the skills of segmenting, blending and manipulating sounds in order to read and spell. They also learn the alphabetic code knowledge needed in order to read accurately and fluently, as well as the key concepts about the alphabetic code. These concepts are:

· letters are symbols that represent sounds.

· sounds can be spelled using 1, 2, 3 or 4 letters.

· the same sound can be spelled in different ways.

· the same spelling can represent different sounds.

You can find out more about Sounds-Write, including information for parents here: https://www.sounds-write.co.uk/page-84-downloads-links-for-parents-teachers.aspx 

Reading in KS1 and KS2

We strongly believe that alongside language development, reading is key to pupils successfully accessing the curriculum and making good progress.

We develop a love of reading in our pupils, whether for pleasure or to inform and broaden knowledge. We emphasise the importance of books and literature enabling pupils to become confident, happy, and enthusiastic readers and writers, with all the benefits this brings. Each week, pupils can take a book home which they can read with their families. Children have a reading book which is aligned to their Sounds Write phonics level.

Dedicated time is devoted each day for the teacher to share a story with the pupils. These sessions see a focus on modelling how to read expressively, highlighting features and prompting thought and curiosity skills with skilfully scaffolded questions. We carefully choose literature which outlines a range of books and authors that pupils will have read to them in each year group, in addition to the rich range of stories and books that teachers select.

Pupils have many opportunities across the curriculum to develop their reading skills. Different approaches are used to develop a broad range of skills.

Whole-class, group and 1:1 reading sessions are designed to explicitly develop reading fluency and comprehension for all pupils whilst enjoying a text together. 

Reading comprehension can be improved by teaching pupils specific strategies that they can apply both to monitor and overcome barriers to comprehension. 

We implement the National Curriculum reading domains to ensure that all of the reading skills are taught. This ensures that our pupils have accessed all of the key skills that are required to be a successful reader. Each domain is represented by a ‘reading character’ which make them memorable to our pupils and ensures whole school consistency whilst engaging pupils in the comprehension activities. 

Reading in KS2 continues to build upon the reading process in KS1 where the focus is on both language comprehensions and decoding.

Pupils have many opportunities across the curriculum to develop their reading skills. Different approaches are used to develop a broad range of skills. 

In KS2, pupils continue to enjoy stories where teachers dedicate time every day to share and read a story, modelling how to read expressively, highlighting features and prompting thought and curiosity skills with careful questions. Pupils take books home which can be read with their families. Pupils are assessed regularly to ensure that they are on the correct reading band. Once children are assessed as being ‘Premier Readers’.

We implement the National Curriculum reading domains to ensure that all of the reading skills are taught. This ensures that our pupils have accessed all of the key skills that are required to be a successful reader. Each domain is represented by a ‘reading character’ which make them memorable to our pupils, ensures whole school consistency whilst engaging pupils in the comprehension activities.