Early Reading & Phonics

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One of the most essential 'tools' our children need is the ability to read. Getting children to love reading and become confident readers is essential in providing them with access to all other parts of the curriculum.

Love for Reading 

At St James the Less, we LOVE to read. We have been lucky enough to invite authors into our school to celebrate World Book Day, and most recently tied that into International Women's Day with a visit from Kate Pankhurst. 


We celebrate World Book Day each year and this is great fun for both children and staff! 

Each year, we invite the Book Fair into school to provide parents and children with the opportunity to purchase the latest books, and we can then use a percentage of the income to improve our own school library. 

We are also very fortunate in that we received a donation of books from 'We Buy Books' which meant each pupil could choose their own book to take home.

How Parents Can Help

  • Make reading fun! It can be a wonderful moment to share a story with your child. 
  • Visit the library in Rawtenstall to: borrow books, join in with the many different reading challenges they have, and have the opportunity to read many genres without a cost to you.
  • When reading, always discuss the story o try to build your child’s comprehension skills, inference and understanding. 
  • Practice the sounds they know at home. These are the sounds in the Speed Sound Chart at the start of the storybooks.
  • Listen to your child read, both their RWI storybook and other storybooks, every day. Make sure that your child brings their RWI Storybook into school every day!
  • Talk to them! The most important thing you can do is to talk to your child and listen to them when they are talking to you. Try to extend their vocabulary range and their skill at talking in increasingly more complex sentences. For example, try to teach them alternative words for ideas, or nouns they already know.
  • Make sure that they attend school every day, and that they are on time, as this will help your child to make the most progress.

How Reading is Taught at St James the Less 

Approaches to reading:

· Teach daily systematic, synthetic phonics teaching from the start of Reception using Read, Write Inc.

· Shared reading during English lessons

· Daily whole class Reading sessions using the CUSP support materials (Y2 – 6)

· Shared reading, echo reading, partner reading, independent reading

· Home reading

· Reading in other areas of the curriculum

· Accelerated Reader to assess reading abilities and comprehension of texts (Y3 – Y6)

· Provide a stimulating reading environment with a range of fiction and non-fiction texts

· A literature spine that has been harmonised with the wider curriculum, where appropriate

 

Further information about how the teaching of reading is assessed and taught progressively can be found in our English Policy: 

English Policy 2025

Accelerated Reader KS2

All children in KS2 complete the Star Reader Assessment quiz four times a year (September, December, April and July). When this assessment has been completed, these results will outline their reading age and their Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD). The ZPD will be shared with each child. The children will select appropriate books within their ZPD, and be encouraged to read a range of different genres within their range. After a child has finished reading a book, they will complete a quiz to assess their comprehension and understanding. Teachers will monitor the use of this programme. 

The class that has read the most words this month is: 

This month the children in KS2 have read: 

National Testing at Year 1 and Year 2

Children are tested in Year 1 to see if they are at a particular standard by the end of the year. Those children who were not at the expected standard by the end of Year 1 are retested at the end of Year 2.

Results - KS1

Phonics Screening Check

2024/25 - 87% of Y1 pupils met the expected standard 

2023/24 - 90% of Y1 pupils met the expected standard 

Any child not at the expected standard will receive additional phonics sessions, including when they move into Key Stage 2.