Class Stories
We recognise how important stories are, and we read with our children at the end of every day. The stories we hear as children shape our view of the world.
Reading stories to children can show them far-flung places, extraordinary people and eye-opening situations to expand and enrich their world. It can also be a great way of helping them deal with real life situations that they need help to deal with.
Reading with our children increases their vocabulary and their understanding of how stories work. We encourage our children to have a say in the stories that are read and, where possible, use these texts to give them more information on the topics that we’re studying in class.
Children often enjoy these stories so much that they reread them independently and read other texts by the same authors.
Here is a selection of texts we’ve read together.
Reading and phonics in Early Years and Key Stage 1
Teaching synthetic phonics, in a systematic way, drives up standards in reading and writing. Read Write Inc. Phonics is a comprehensive literacy programme designed to get all young children reading writing quickly. Importantly, phonics is not taught in isolation.
- Initial and ongoing assessment tracks every child’s progress
- Children are grouped by ability, so they learn rapidly and at the right level
- Sounds are taught with rhymes to help the child remember
- Previously learnt sounds are revisited
- Partner work means every child participates in the whole session
- The special ‘three reads’ approach ensures every child gains accuracy, fluency and good understanding of the text
- Children take home a phonics book weekly and then they also take a sharing book to read alongside an adult at home
Phonics sessions take place daily from Reception to Year 2, and where needed in Year 3, and pre-phonics is taught in Nursery. These sessions are taught in addition to daily English lessons.
Reading in Key Stage 2
We encourage children to read a wide range of texts from a range of diverse authors. We teach whole class guided reading daily in Key Stage 2 and to Year 2 children once they are ready for it. Children read a range of short extracts, longer texts, video clips, and poetry to expose the, to as many different genres and authors as possible.
FLUENCY – Teachers practice fluency with children by modelling fluent, expressive reading in a short extract, pupils then repeat this extract, taking care to imitate the expression and fluency.
VOCABULARY – Children are pre-taught difficult vocabulary from the text that they will be reading to ensure clear understanding of the information. Children share their thoughts on definitions before looking at dictionary definitions and using these in sentences verbally.
COMPREHENSION – The text is shared as a class. Children may read individually, or it may be read in groups together as a class. Children then answer a variety of comprehension questions both in groups and individually.
We use Accelerated Reader to ensure children are reading accessible books independently and the expectation is that children will read to an adult at home three times a week.