Reading

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 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:

• Daily phonics sessions in Early Years Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1
• Daily guided reading sessions
• 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.
• A class novel
• Opportunities to browse, select and read books in the class reading area
• Opportunities to role play and act out fictional scenes

Phonics and pre-reading

Pre-reading skills are taught using systematic, synthetic phonics following the government published programme ‘Letters and Sounds’.  

Children begin the Letters and Sounds programme at the start of Reception year and continue across Key Stage 1 (Years 1 and 2).  Every child between Reception and into Year 2 has a 25 minute phonics lesson every day .   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 phase that is appropriate to their level of development. They are assessed on a regular basis 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 application.  Parents have been supported to help their children with training sessions run by school staff.

Laura

Laura Wynne

Executive Headteacher

Moss Hall Schools Federation

c/o Moss Hall Junior School

Finchley

London

N3 1NR