At Hugh Joicey C of E First School, we aim to meet the needs of every child. We aim for children to become articulate and literate individuals with a strong love of reading.
Find out more about our intent, implementation and impact in our Phonics and Early Reading policy.
We aim for all children to access an enriching and stimulating curriculum by getting children reading as early as possible. All children have equal access to the curriculum. Children with specific reading, speech and language or hearing difficulties will be identified and supported in school and external help sought where necessary.
We aim for children to practise and enjoy reading regularly. This could be through:
- One-to-one reading with an adult
- Shared reading
- Guided reading
- Reading across the curriculum
- Independent reading
- Home reading
- Listening to stories read aloud on a daily basis
Class libraries
Every class has access to a range of high quality fiction and non-fiction texts in a variety of genres and styles, reflecting the diverse world in which we live. We also have a school library which each class visits every week. We read stories together, look at books together and choose a story to take home to share. This promotes a love of reading with our children.
Story time
Every class has a daily, scheduled story time, so children can hear how a good reader sounds. It is a time to enjoy stories and books, providing language-rich experiences with opportunities to develop vocabulary and comprehension skills. Staff watch and support each other's story sessions.
Parental involvement
We believe that in school we teach children how to read. At home children practise and embed the skills they learn in school. Adults at home are encouraged to listen to children read at home. Children take home a reading book that is closely matched to their growing phonic knowledge. They are encouraged to read this book more than once, to build accuracy, fluency and understanding of the text. They also take home a self-chosen library book, to promote enjoyment and a love of reading.
You might find these guides useful when listening to your child read at home.
Year 1 Reading Advice Booklet.docx
Year 2 Reading Advice Booklet.docx
Reception Reading Advice Booklet.docx
Year 3 Reading Advice Booklet.docx
Year 4 Reading Advice Booklet.docx
Phonics
Phonics is given high priority at Hugh Joicey. We have high expectations for pupils, and aim for most pupils to achieve the expected level in the Year 1 Phonics Screening Check.
At Hugh Joicey, we follow the systematic synthetic phonics program Read Write Inc. Phonics is taught daily across the school, and one to one tutoring is delivered using the Read Write Inc program where needed.
Phonics is taught right from the start in Reception. Read Write Inc sessions are taught consistently across the school, leading to confident readers who can blend and segment words effectively, as well as being able to read and spell words that do not fit spelling patterns, known as 'red words' or common exception words. Children are assessed half termly, which allows us to track their progress and ensure everyone is getting the exact phonics teaching they need.
Children take home a Read Write Inc book to read that closely matches their phonic knowledge. We encourage children to re-read these books to build familiarity and confidence in word reading.
For more information, please see the Phonics Parent Guide and the Phonics and Early Reading Policy below. If you have any further questions, please contact your child's class teacher.
Complex speed sounds chart.pdf
Simple speed sounds chart.pdf
Phonics and Reading policy 2023-24.pdf
Teaching sequence for RWI.pdf
How we develop a love of reading
- Reading challenges, like our Extreme Reading challenge
- Choosing high quality texts to use in the classroom from Pie Corbett's Reading Spine (this list is not exhaustive, but there are some great examples of texts to use for each age group )
- Reading Buddies - older children read to the younger children in school
- Encourage parent readers in school
- Termly Reading Newsletters
- Book swaps
- Performing poetry to other classes in school
- Daily story time, with different adults reading to the children
- Special events - World Book Day, Forest School reading sessions, theme days, Summer reading challenge from the local library, The Masked Reader
- Visits to the library
- Authors visiting school to share their work
Scan the QR code below for The Masked Reader challenge - can you guess which staff member is reading each story?
