Reading at Moss Hall Infants

We are building our curriculum to hold reading at it’s heart.  We encourage children to develop a positive attitude towards literature of all kinds and believe that parents play a vital role in this process.  Working together we will ensure that children learn the knowledge and skills to become confident readers, so that they can read for both pleasure and information.

We want the children in our school to:

• Enjoy reading all genre of books and appreciate the value and worth of reading in everyday life.
• Read a range of different kinds of reading material fluently and with understanding
• Make choices about the sorts of texts that they enjoy
• Use reading skills to search for information
• Use a full range of reading cues (e.g. phonics, grammar and context)
• Read ‘between the lines’ and behind the images
• Be exposed to literature that is beyond their current experience and fluency
• We use a comprehensive, robust, curriculum-aligned literacy program called Read, Write Inc to teach phonics
   

We use a number of different strategies to promote a child’s love of books and encourage them to become confident, independent readers.  Children are provided with many opportunities to read, enjoy and share books as well as being emerged in language rich environments with access to a breadth of vocabulary and print.  We have a range of reading books for children to borrow including from our own school library which contains a wide range of reading materials to support children of all abilities.

Throughout the school day children are provided with many opportunities to develop and strengthen their literacy skills. These include:

• Read Write Inc phonics sessions four times a week in Early Years Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1
• They experience success from the very beginning. Lively phonic books are closely matched to their increasing knowledge of phonics and 'tricky' words (red words) and, as children re-read the stories, their fluency increases.
• Daily guided reading sessions once the children leave the Read Write Inc programme that are carefully planned to ensure the reading domains are secure.
• A focus text used in literacy lessons
• Home reading books which include a reading booked linked to the instructional phonic level children are working at as part of Read Write Inc.
• A class novel (Year 2)
• Opportunities to browse, select and read books in the class reading area
• Opportunities to role play and act out fictional scenes
• We set the children reading challenges at the end of each term
• We celebrate national events such as 'World Book Day'.
• We actively engage with our parents and ask them to come and take part in our 'secret reader' sessions. 

Phonics and pre-reading

Pre-reading skills are taught using systematic, synthetic phonics following the Read Write Inc programme.

Children begin the Read, Write Inc programme at the start of the Reception Year and continue across Key Stage 1 (Years 1 and 2). Every child between Reception and into Year 2 has a 30 minute phonics lesson. At the start of Reception it is for about 15 minutes and then we build up to 30 minutes phonics lessons four times per week - we are doing phonics 5 times a week at the moment. Year 2 build on their phonics knowledge and move into learning about grammar and spelling routinely to support reading and writing. The children are taught within the closely matched set of sounds that is appropriate to their level of development. They are assessed every 6 to 8 weeks and groups are sorted accordingly. The phonemes (sounds) are systematically taught before the children are shown how to blend them for reading and segmenting them for writing.

Alongside this the children are taught the 'common exception words' (those words which do not entirely follow the phonic rules). Staff receive regular training in the teaching of phonics which ensures that they deliver interesting, interactive sessions that engage and motivate the children.

Children take home reading books to support their phonic understanding and appreciation. Parents are supported to help their children through training sessions run by the school staff and by accessing information in the Read, Write Inc parent portal.

Laura

Laura Wynne

Executive Headteacher

Moss Hall Schools Federation

c/o Moss Hall Junior School

Finchley

London

N3 1NR