The Southfield Reader

CURRICULUM STATEMENT Story is at the heart of our school and curriculum thus reading is considered sacrosanct and our new purposely designed library ‘The Old Curiosity Shop’ is the beating heat of the school. We prioritise a child’s right to read from the very beginning of their school life. High quality phonics teaching through our Read Write Inc synthetic phonic scheme allow children to accelerate their reading and understanding. Reading opens children to other worlds and lets them explore adventures not experienced in their day-to-day life. Through books they become immersed in the joys of learning.

Our three pillars of reading reflect the importance of reading as the gateway to all learning and understanding.

At Southfield we aspire for all children to be immersed in an exciting canon of children’s literature allowing them to making meaning and understanding of the world. Drawing on similarities and differences of characters, events and forging their understanding and place in the world.

Autumn Term

Spring Term

Summer Term

Year 1

Peace at Last

The Magic Bed

The Whale Song

Year 2

The Mousehole Cat

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Bill's New Frock

Year 3

Charlotte’s Web

The Ice Palace

The Angel of Nitshill Road Stig of the Dump

Year 4

Street Child

Kensuke’s Kingdom

Wind in the Willows

Year 5

Why The Whales Came

Tom’s Midnight Garden

Rooftoppers

Year 6

Goodnight Mister The Other Side of Truth Tom

The Giant’s Necklace

CURRICULUM COVERAGE

HOW OUR 4 CURRICULUM PRINCIPLES ARE REALISED AT SOUTHFIELD

Pillar 1: Reading Strategies: Early Reading and Phonics A love of reading is instilled at an early age through phonics and reading skills coupled with exploring high quality texts. In Reception and throughout Key Stage 1 we follow Read Write Inc phonics scheme developed by Ruth Miskin, which provides a structured and systematic approach to teaching literacy. The scheme is designed to create fluent readers, confident speakers and willing writers.

A brand new glossy reading scheme Collins Big Cats Books runs from Year 1-6 and incorporates both fiction and non-fiction texts and supports children’s reading both in school and at home.

Teachers listen to all children read at least once a week and parents are actively encouraged to read each day with children and books are swapped once a week. The bottom 20% of pupils in a class are listened to read at least twice per week and are involved in our innovative Junior Reading Scheme. This is where trained Year 5 and 6 pupils listen to readers in Reception and Year 1. We also have active team of weekly parental helpers.

Pillar 2: Reading for Meaning: Comprehension The school uses the Cracking Comprehension scheme for teaching specific comprehension skills and uses a broad range of fiction, poetry and factual texts to enable children to practise techniques such as inference and retrieval. This is taught weekly and explicitly as a class. Each term children complete a Reading test which allows teachers to ascertain a reading age and compare to a chronological age.

All English and creative writing lessons are centred around a core text carefully selected to reflect high ambition and rigour. Children are immersed in the reading of a text carefully using skills of following and building up words. As a matter of social justice we believe all children accessing a high quality and ambitious texts facilitates the acquisition of high quality vocabulary. Teachers deliberately and purposefully deepen children’s word power through developing and enhancing children’s word consciousness.

Daily Read Aloud Sessions All children enjoy the love of Storytime and have at least 15 minutes of guaranteed read aloud time daily. Teachers select stories or novels to read with their class, usually at the end of the day and further reflects the importance of story at the heart of our curriculum. Teachers model good reading, highlight ambitious vocabulary and present the delicious rhythmic sounds and patterns language makes as the children enjoy the story.

Book Blethering Once a week children are given the opportunity in class to book blether. This involves talking about new books they have read and recommending to others.

HOW OUR 4 CURRICULUM PRINCIPLES ARE REALISED AT SOUTHFIELD Pillar 3: Reading for Pleasure Whilst we place great emphasis on the mechanics of reading through phonics and comprehension we never lose sight that these are only conduits to become immersed in reading and therefore reading for pleasure is a habit we hope to instil in all children.

Enrichment: Reading Festival – each year during Book Week we celebrate a whole school Reading Festival with author visits, drama workshops and all the curriculum is dedicated to reading.

The Old Curiosity Shop Library – the beating heart of our school is our brand-new library space stocked with all brand-new books.

Key Success at a Glance:

We seek to:

An excellent phonics programme

Foster a love of reading for pleasure in children across the school

A rich cohesive glossy reading scheme running throughout the school

Exploit opportunities for reading across the school day

Regular 1-1 reading

Be part of a reading festival week exploring books and authors

Weekly Reading Partners

Children will explore being an author

A new well stocked library

Building successful reading habits

Read Aloud Daily Sessions

Reading across the curriculum to enhance foundation subjects

Dedicated Comprehension Skills Lessons A rich and ambitious canon of children’s literature in English lessons Multi -layered bi-weekly picture book lessons

ASSESSMENT Half termly Phonics assessments in Reception and year 1 to ensure no reader left behind Weekly teacher notes in reading file

Reading assessments linked to chronological age each term inYear 1-6 Year 1 phonics test Termly Reading Comprehension tests year 1-6 linked to NC Reading Year 2 and 6 SATs test results

Termly data meetings to assess each child’s reading Interventions for children below age related expectations – monitored termly in data meetings

‘Ex Corde Vita’

Email: admin@southfield.ealing.sch.uk Southfield Primary School Southfield Road Bedford Park London W4 1BD

Tel 020 8994 6173