Reading

We are committed to ensuring our pupils leave our academy as fluent and confident readers. We also aim to inspire a love of reading in them which will follow them into their later life. For this reason, ‘core texts’ are at the heart of our curriculum – these are high quality, engaging texts that lead our learning.

To promote reading further, we use Accelerated Reader, an online reading platform that gives each child access to a range of reading books at an appropriate level of challenge set by the teacher. The software enables teachers to see the books children have accessed and the skills they have rehearsed

At our academy, we recognise that reading is made up of these essential elements:

• Decoding
• Comprehension
• Reading for pleasure

Phonics at Steeple Bumpstead Primary School

At Steeple Bumpstead Primary School, we teach early reading and spelling through Sounds-Write, a highly structured, evidence-based phonics programme. Sounds-Write is designed to help all children become confident, fluent readers and writers by teaching them the essential skills needed to decode, read, and spell words successfully.

Through daily phonics lessons, children learn that words are made up of sounds (phonemes) and that these sounds can be represented by different letters and letter combinations (graphemes). They are taught to:

• Recognise and say sounds accurately.
• Blend sounds together to read words.
• Segment words into sounds to support spelling.
• Develop fluency and confidence in reading and writing.

Sounds-Write follows a carefully planned progression, ensuring that children build their knowledge step by step. The programme supports children in understanding the complexities of the English language while providing plenty of opportunities for practice and success

 At Key Stage 1, reading is taught through:

• A daily ‘Phonics’ lesson – following Sounds Write programme
• English lessons – featuring core texts
• Daily Reading Comprehension – reading as a whole class to develop the skills necessary to understand a text
• Targeted provision for those pupils needing additional support such as Keep Up and Catch Up
• Individual reading known as daily readers

At Key Stage 2, reading is taught through:

• English lessons – featuring core texts.
• Individual reading
• Daily Reading Comprehension – reading as a whole class to develop the skills necessary to understand a text
• Targeted provision for those pupils needing additional support

---

Writing

Children need to write as a means of communication, as a way of clarifying their thoughts and as a method of recording their opinions and ideas.

Various types of writing are introduced to the children, enabling them to select the most appropriate skills for the task in hand. We also stress the importance of good spelling, sound grammatical structure, neat handwriting and quality presentation.

Pupils develop their writing skills through exercises covering:

• Narrative writing – sci-fi, fairy tales, myths and more
• Non-fiction report writing
• Creating fact files
• Shaping persuasive and explanatory letters
• Non-chronological leaflets and reports
• Poetry
• Newspaper articles
• Biographies and auto-biographies
• Playscripts