Statement of Intent 

It is our intent at Morven Park Primary School to provide pupils with a high-quality education in English that will teach pupils to speak, read and write fluently so that they can communicate their ideas and emotions to others effectively.

With regards to reading, phonics will be emphasised in the early teaching of reading to beginners when they start school. As children move through their reading instruction, we will teach children to read using a wide range of strategies to support them. As children move into Key Stage 2 we will focus on children’s understanding of what they have read.

We intend to encourage all pupils to read widely across both fiction and non-fiction to develop their knowledge of themselves and the world in which they live, to establish an appreciation and love of reading, to gain knowledge across the curriculum and develop their comprehension skills and increase their use of and understanding of a wider variety of vocabulary. It is our intention to ensure that, by the end of their primary education, all pupils are able to read fluently, and with confidence, in any subject in their forthcoming secondary education. 

Reading implementation 

The systematic teaching of phonics has a high priority throughout Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1. At Morven Park Primary, we use the synthetic phonics programme Letters and Sounds. Our staff teach learners the relationship between sounds and the written spelling patterns, or graphemes, which represent them. 

All children in Reception and KS1 have a daily phonics session in ability groups where they participate in speaking, listening, spelling and reading activities that are matched to their current needs. The teachers draw upon observations and continuous assessment to ensure children are stretched and challenged, and to identify children who may need additional support. Timely intervention is planned for those children who are working below expected levels as soon as their needs are identified.  In addition, children in Key Stage 1 have Guided Reading lessons several times a week. They are taught the skills to enable them to comprehend a range of different text types which are closely matched to their ability.

Children in Year 3 and 4 continue to have twice weekly Guided Reading sessions. The children are ability grouped and read a variety of banded books and books which tie into their topic work, to best develop their vocabulary and comprehension skills. By upper Key Stage two, the teaching of reading is mainly delivered through the Reading Approach and VIPERS (Vocabulary, Inference, Prediction, Explanation, Retrieval and Summarising) using high quality text such as The Boy in the Tower, Wonder and Tom’s Midnight Garden.

We recognise the importance of developing a rich and extensive bank of vocabulary; therefore, we discreetly teach vocabulary directly linked to the text during guided reading sessions. 

Reading at home is encouraged and promoted through class incentives and parental engagement sessions. Children in Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1 take a phonics book home which reflects the level they are at in Letters and Sounds as well as a book banded book. All children in Key Stage 2 have access to the school library and our range of banded books.

We expect family members to read these books at home with their child daily and make comments in their child’s reading record. We assess when children are ready to move up a level in the book bands using the PM Benchmarking materials.

We love to celebrate the success of all our learners and strive to help all children achieve their goals. Reading is celebrated in classrooms and around school at Morven Park, where our bright and colourful displays celebrate children’s reading and writing, their favourite books and reading reward schemes.  In addition, throughout the school year our English curriculum is enhanced through World Book Day, Reading Assemblies, Reading Volunteers, 1:1 reading, drama workshops and a range of trips and visits which enrich and complement children’s learning. We have a whole school reward scheme to encourage children to read regularly at home and the children’s achievements are celebrated in our termly reading assemblies.

Reading Impact 

Through the teaching of systematic phonics and one to one reading, our aim is for children to become fluent and confident word readers by the end of KS1.     

As children move into Key Stage 2 we aim that they develop a deeper understanding of the texts they read, expand their vocabularies and start to question texts. We aspire for our Year 6 readers, transitioning into secondary school, to be fluent, confident and able readers, who can access a range of texts for pleasure and enjoyment, as well as use their reading skills to unlock learning in all areas of the curriculum.

We firmly believe that reading is the key to all learning and so the impact of our reading curriculum goes beyond the results of the statutory assessments. We give all children the opportunity to enter the magical worlds that books open up to them. We promote reading for pleasure as part of our reading curriculum. Children are encouraged to develop their own love of genres and authors and to review their books objectively. This enhances a deep love of literature across a range of genres, cultures and styles. We aim for all children who leave Morven Park to not just be a confident reader but to have a love of books.