Reading and Phonics

At Borrow Wood, our aim is that by the end of their primary education, all children will learn to read fluently and confidently, with good understanding. We follow the national curriculum objectives for reading, providing broad, balanced and differentiated opportunities for children to develop their reading. Our focus is to ensure the progressive development of word reading, fluency and comprehension so that children can read accurately, with speed and understanding which enables them to make links in learning.

In Early Years and Key Stage 1 there is a strong focus on teaching children early reading skills. From September 2022, we are implementing Little Wandle as our Systematic Synthetic Phonics programme and using the recommended phonically decodable books published by Big Cat alongside the programme.

More broadly, all pupils are encouraged to read widely across both fiction and non-fiction to develop their knowledge of themselves and the world in which they live.  Through reading, we intend to support children in developing a curious mind, to establish an appreciation and love of reading, and to gain knowledge across the curriculum. We are keen for children to develop a wide vocabulary to support their learning and understanding.

We have adopted ‘Reciprocal Reading’, a discussion technique that improves reading comprehension. It incorporates four main reading strategies:

·         (1) predicting,

·         (2) questioning,

·         (3) clarifying

·         (4) summarising.

You can use these techniques at home to develop your child’s understanding of what they are reading. The parent’s guide can be downloaded below.

We are looking forward to developing our reading curriculum further over the next year …keep your eyes peeled for even more fun events to celebrate our love of books!