EYFS curriculum

OUR READING CURRICULUM INTENT

We want all children to have the understanding, that reading is something for everyone not just the few: they will be taught to fluently decode as well as comprehend.  All children in our school will develop their self-concept as readers and develop a clear picture of their personal “reading identity”. We want all children to derive pleasure from reading, be it immersion in the escapism of fiction or acquiring new knowledge and critical thinking skills through non-fiction.

“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go. ― Dr. Seuss,  

Reading

The essential aim of our reading curriculum is to instil a love of reading that will stay with the children throughout their lives. We know that children who are fluent, confident readers will be more able to access the whole curriculum and will achieve better outcomes in all areas of the curriculum. 

In school children will have regular opportunities to read for pleasure and to an audience.  They will be encouraged to read to celebrate and extend their learning.

Through a planned programme of teaching reading will progress from decoding, to fluency, to comprehension, through one to one reading, whole class reading and modelled/ shared reading.

Our goal is to teach the children the skills to progress from reading scheme books to being able to select their own books from a varied range of genres that suit their ability. 

A home-school reading partnership is fostered through the school, whereby children are encouraged to bring books home to share with their families.  As well as promoting reading, this gives the school and parents an opportunity to regularly communicate about children’s reading.

Reading in EYFS

In EYFS, we are passionate about reading and igniting a LOVE of books.  Every child will have many reading opportunities throughout the day – daily phonic sessions, reading games and activities, visiting our cosy book corner or ‘Book Nooks’, reading magazines at the snack table, looking at information books in the Nature Shed or reading lists and labels around the classroom – to name but a few!!

Reading consists of two elements: Language comprehension and word reading. During their time in EYFS, the children will develop their understanding and enjoyment of books, as well as speedy pronunciation and recognition of familiar and unfamiliar words.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/development-matters--2

The children will listen and discuss stories and books, read by the teacher, as well as having the opportunity to read their school reading book to an adult at least once a week.  In EYFS, we have daily whole class reading sessions, where we learn different reading strategies, such as prediction and inference, as well as developing a wide range of vocabulary and book skills.  In Mulberry class, we also read class novels, appropriate to the age of the child, to encourage speaking and listening skills, enjoyment, and imagination!

Each child will bring home two books - A book chosen by the child from our book corner (Read with them) and a Learning to Read book from the Little Wandle Reading books.  The expectation is every child should read their school reading book at least 3 times each week. Records will be kept by the class teacher and any home reading, recorded in the child’s reading diary. Tapestry can also be used to log reading, by adding comments, photos or videos. It is always lovely to listen to children read at home!

We hope your child develops a love of books and that you will support us in helping your child learn to read.                     

Phonics Programme

We are using the Little Wandle scheme to teach phonics. 

Further information about Little Wandle and resources for parents to use can be found here

• Our reading scheme books are banded in line with the phonics teaching phases.
• Every child receives a quality 30 minutes’ phonics/spelling lesson every morning and a catch up session every afternoon.
• Phonic lessons are interactive and multi-sensory. 

BREADTH OF STUDY AND PROGRESSION IN READING

We carefully plan the different text types we are going to study in our English and Reading lessons, to ensure full coverage of the curriculum, alongside the children's interests and our topics.

At St. Peter’s we strive to deliver the 2014 National Curriculum through an inspiring and creative approach. We believe that all children need access to good role models of spoken English and therefore we expect all adults to use correct Standard English in their daily spoken and verbal interactions. Grammar, Handwriting, Punctuation and Spelling are integral to every subject across the curriculum so we focus on it continuously.

Resources

Every classroom has relevant supportive resources, that the children can use to support their understanding such as grammatical terminology poster, phonics mats, topic spelling banks etc. Teachers in KS2 and at the end of Year 2, use the No Nonsense Spelling Scheme to support their lesson delivery. Children in KS2 have a spelling journal to record their exploration and practising of rules and patterns, which also contains a “Have a go sheet”. This encourages children to experiment independently with tricky spellings and gain scaffolded feedback to find the correct spelling.  Classes also have dictionaries and iPads for children’s use. Children in UKS2 also use a GCP Grammar Practice book as part of their homework routine at various points during the year, to reinforce their understanding of grammatical concepts and apply the knowledge. Children in LKS2 may also use Fluent in Five style lesson starters, to reinforce and apply conceptual knowledge.

Handwriting

Handwriting is taught separately to phonics. The focus is initially on the correct formation of individual letters but in accordance with our Little Wandle phonics scheme, handwriting is taught discretely. In LKS2 every Friday, children are directly taught handwriting patterns linked to the spelling rule of the week to give focused practice and as children progress to UKS2, they are given opportunities to practise all the handwriting joins through final presentation drafts and focused practice linked to spelling rule practice. Teachers use the Nelson scheme as a basis for the way in which we teach cursive handwriting and we form letters.

Modelling

Children are encouraged to use correct terminology from Reception to Year 6 and all adults remind children and reiterate the correct grammatical way to pronounce or write. When writing, we model correct spellings, Standard English grammatical structures and syntax. Cursive handwriting is used in modelling at an appropriate point in development in Year 2 onwards.

Teaching and Assessment

Children are tested on GAPS in KS1 (Year 2) and KS2 (Year 6). In KS1 GAPS is taught within the English curriculum with explicit links to the GAPS NC objectives. GAPS may be taught discretely or within the English lesson. Importance is put on the embedding of the GAPS teaching in to their writing and the application of skills so we develop our pupils as good writers with support on passing the SATs later in the year.