Reading has the highest priority at Dorothy Barley Infant School. We are committed to ensuring that all children become fluent readers by the age of seven. This is achieved by teaching reading through a systematic synthetic phonics programme, Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised, and by immersing children in a a range of high quality texts. All staff promote reading for pleasure.
Home Reading
We encourage you to read daily with your child at home with the minimum expectation being that your child’s reading record is signed three times a week. In the early stages of learning to read, your child will bring home a decodable book linked to their phonic knowledge.
Reading
Children from Reception to Year 2 are taught in small groups. In these sessions, children build their decoding skills, expand their vocabulary, learn to read with expression and develop their comprehension. In Reception and Key Stage One, the children work with decodable books linked to their phonic knowledge.
Reading Spine
All teachers read aloud to their classes daily. We follow our bespoke Reading Spine. Each year group has been assigned a range of high quality texts for reading aloud. By the time they leave our school, children will have had around 40 ‘essential reads’ read to them, creating a living library inside their mind.
Wider Curriculum
As well as reading in their English and Reading sessions, children may read texts related to the wider curriculum theme. This ensures that the children continue to have exposure to high quality texts that can inform their learning in the foundation subjects. The school also has a bank of high quality non-fiction texts that can be accessed during curriculum lessons.
