Gruffalo Sensory Story - Fountains Primary School

Phonics, Early Reading and Communication

At Fountains Primary School we aim to foster a love and enjoyment of reading which encourages all children to read regularly both at home and in school, experiencing a selection of books from a wide range of genres and authors. We have devised a school reading spine based on recommended texts from Pie Corbett which supports children working at a range of reading ability and grows their understanding of the structure of a book. These texts will also promote a child’s love of reading and support their communication and language, which is imperative in developing reading skills. Therefore, a dedicated storytime is incorporated every day into the school timetable, for every class.

All children are taught phonics, early reading and communication skills, daily. In the Early Years Curriculum extending through to the Functional Curriculum, reading is taught through the Read Write Inc programme. This programme is a structured synthetic phonics programme that teaches both reading and spelling. The child progresses through the scheme according to their individual needs. A lot of revision and repetition is built-in, as well as the application of phonic skills in all reading and writing. Read Write Inc provides formative assessment from which teachers can plan a child’s next steps in reading. Research shows that children are best taught using this approach leading to better word reading, spelling and reading comprehension. (Johnson et al, 2012)

Our School Library

At Fountains Primary we have created a school library that is accessible to all children. We are very keen for all children to enjoy books and to progress as far as they are able to with independent reading. The library is well-stocked with a wide assortment of books for children to browse and choose themselves. All children are able to change their books in the library on a daily basis at lunchtime, these books can be taken home and enjoyed with parents/carers.

Some children will also receive a Read Write Inc (RWI) ‘Bag book’. This book will be matched to each child’s reading ability. This is a finely graded approach to the teaching of the wider skills of reading and enables children to apply what they have learned in phonics lessons. These books also give the children a very meaningful approach to reading, using pictures, whole words and their own experiences.

Every child in school has a reading book (library and or RWI) and therefore progress of their reading can be recorded in the home school diary, which has a reading record incorporated within it. Reading is regularly assessed and monitored by class teachers and the Lead Teacher for English.

Reading within our School Community

Within school all children, parents/carers and staff are encouraged to share a range of favourite books to support our Bookflix zone. All children have the opportunity to take part in the weekly book club as well as celebrate national events such as 'Roald Dahl Day’ and ‘World Book Day’.

Parent/Carer workshops are offered regularly and support parents to learn about the different ways in which they can help their child to read. Workshops also teach and enlighten parents on the variety of ways a book can be shared successfully with their child.

We have a very supportive local Library (in Burton on Trent) that welcome visits from our school community. As well as the ‘Activities Officer’ who will often come to school to support children, parents and staff. The community Librarian will also come into school and deliver a variety of storytime sessions, which meet a wide range of our pupils' needs.