Reading at Beauclerc

We love reading at Beauclerc Infant and Nursery School and we aspire that our children will share in the pleasure that can be gained by a love of books!  We value reading as a key life skill and are dedicated to enabling our pupils to reach their full potential as lifelong readers.  We believe reading is key to academic success and enable children to leave us able to make a difference.  Reading can be a vehicle  to explore diversity and develop the children's cultural capital.

Reading is used to support learning.  Reading is inclusive and is the bedrock to all areas of the National Curriculum.  Through books children engage with the topics they are discovering and can explore the world in which we live.  Reading happens across the whole curriculum.

We believe children move along their reading journey of 'Learning to Read to Reading to Learn'.  Children develop strategies to tackle tricky words, building on the phonics learnt in KS1 and using other strategies too, such as reading around the word.  For those children where further phonics learning is requires, we plan targeted interventions.  Our aim is to ensure that by the time children leave Year 2 they are confident readers and genuinely love reading and being read to. 

We read in all subjects across the curriculum and ensure children hear quality texts daily. 

We believe that confident readers;

• Have excellent phonic knowledge and the skills needed to decode new words
• Are fluent and accurate when reading in a range of contexts across the curriculum
• Develop a rich, ever expanding vocabulary
• Understand and comprehend texts accurately
• Are motivated to read both for learning and for pleasure
• Demonstrate a wide knowledge due to the rich and varied range of texts they have experienced.

We believe phonics are the building blocks that every child must master in order to become a confident reader.  

We take a structured approach to the teaching of reading and pupils are taught phonics daily through the Read Write Inc Scheme  see the document below for more information.

We expect children to read at home at least three times a week and expect parents to support their child's reading development.  We encourage parents and children to make comments in the child's reading record book.

Phonics Screening Check

The phonics screening check is taken individually by all children in Year 1 and some children in Year 2 in England.  It is usually taken in June. It is designed to give teachers and parents information on how your child is progressing in phonics. It will help to identify whether your child needs additional support at this stage so that they do not fall behind in this vital early reading skill.  We approach this test as part of our routine assessment with pupils.  We do not make a big issue of it.  Staff will tell you about the Phonic Screening Test during the annual welcome meeting.