Reading

At Oyster Park we aim to provide pupils with the appropriate skills and attitudes to create a love of reading and inspire pupils to read for enjoyment. We want to ensure that all children have access to a range of high-quality literature throughout their time with us regardless of their ability.

Across the school we enjoy daily story time where children listen to their teachers enthral them with exciting stories and adventures. We use our magic of reading boxes to engage the children and enable them to make links to other books and authors. Children have access to a range of quality literature in stimulating classroom environments which builds on our school ethos: reading for pleasure. Shared reading is also utilised within year one to develop fluency and intonation through expressive, modelled reading and to deepen understanding of new vocabulary. Years 2- 6 have four Guided Reading sessions throughout the week to develop and embed core reading skills to improve and secure our learners’ progress in reading through the use of the John Murray scheme.  This is followed by a drop everything and read session on the Friday. At Oyster Park, we also use literature across the curriculum to enhance the variety of exciting topics that we teach.

In Early Years we teach discrete phonics sessions daily using the Read Write Inc (RWI) programme. Children are taught listening skills from Nursery and the skill of segmenting and blending orally and build on these skills and develop new phonic skills in Reception. They are given opportunities to apply these in the context of reading and writing. They are also taught how to handle books. They learn that all print carries meaning and begin to develop an understanding of story structure and characters through adults sharing and discussing books.

In Key Stage One we continue to teach discrete phonics sessions using the RWI programme ensuring children have regular opportunities to apply their increasing phonic knowledge when reading a range of texts. Children continue to apply their phonic knowledge to their writing.

From Year Two to Year Six we teach weekly comprehension lessons. Children are exposed to a range of literature including short films and animations. Such lessons focus on the different types of questions, build confidence in understanding and interpreting texts and also expose children to new vocabulary.

We see home-school links as a vital part of the reading process. We positively encourage parental involvement in the development of a child’s reading. We hold parental workshops to provide parents with information on how we teach children to read and this includes demonstrations. We have also introduced a new school initiative in order to encourage children to read at home.

If you have any queries, require any support, advice or guidance in relation to reading please contact the school office where you will be put in contact with a member of the reading team.

Read Write Inc Parent Information