Reading at St George the Martyr CE Primary School
Reading is integral to learning and we aim to develop a love of reading in all of our learners. At St George the Martyr, we believe that reading is the foundation to accessing the full curriculum and we are determined that every child learns to read and experiences success in reading from the very beginning. It is vital that you establish a reading culture at home too, and make time to read with your child every day. Children who do best in education have had a good foundation in talk and literature at home. Reading to your child and ensuring that they are reading to you regularly is the single most important thing you can do to help them educationally. It also benefits them emotionally and socially. The world makes so much more sense to those that are read to and who read often. Children who see themselves as readers can learn to the full, discover their own talents and interests and explore the limits of their imagination and creativity.
Strategies to Teach Reading
Reading in Reception and KS1
Reading in KS2
Reading Assessment
Reading at Home
At St George the Martyr, we believe that reading is the key to success. We know through research that reading regularly and developing strong reading skills from an early age improves children's performance across the curriculum. It is important that children read daily at home as well as at school.
Children at the Early Stages of Reading
Children take home two reading books each week:
Fluent Readers
Children take home two reading books each week:
These books are changed when the child finishes the book and this is monitored by the class teacher.
Celebrating Our Children’s Success as Readers
We believe that it is important to celebrate our children’s successes as readers at home and, through our home reading rewards system children’s efforts are recognised and celebrated. Each week, the number of completed reading records are counted up and the class with the highest percentage, gets the reading trophy in their classroom for the week. They also get a special mention on the weekly newsletter to parents.
Writing at St George the Martyr CE Primary School
We want every child to leave school as effective and confident communicators who love writing. We teach writing as an individual subject for two lessons each week. Our ‘Units of Work’ in writing have been carefully crafted by teachers and link to the grammar curriculum that is being taught in grammar lessons that week. Children produce a complex extended piece of writing every week. In order to do this they talk, plan, write, edit and rewrite during the week. High quality texts are chosen to help ensure that children are inspired in their writing. Children also take part in drama and other speaking and listening activities to formulate ideas about what to write. There is a focus on planning ideas as well as thinking about the task, audience and purpose. Children are taught to write in a variety of styles in context such as narrative, persuasive, journalistic, recounts and reports. Children learn how to vary sentences, make interesting and ambitious word choices, and use grammar and punctuation correctly. Each piece of written work is carefully modelled by teachers and scaffolded through using ‘success criteria’ to guide a child and then marked by highlighting real successes and an area for improvement. Children are taught explicit grammar skills in weekly grammar lessons. These grammar skills are then practised during the weekly writing lessons. Children also have weekly spelling lessons, where children are taught spelling rules and conventions. The children are then given spellings to learn for homework which they are tested on the following week.