Stowlawn
Primary School
Literacy
Literacy is a crucial element of the curriculum. Our aim is to create fluent readers and writers with all the knowledge and skills they need to be confidently literate in life in and out of school. We believe these skills underpin our children’s growth not only academically, but also socially and culturally as well.
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We want all children leaving Stowlawn Primary School to have developed a life-long love of reading and for them to feel confident and inspired within all areas of literacy.
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Reading
We believe that reading is the foundation for all learning; being able to read unlocks everything. At Stowlawn, we strive to develop our children into confident, passionate and ambitious readers. All our children have access to a wide range of popular, age-appropriate texts and are encouraged to read each day. We teach phonics daily and follow the Read Write Inc programme, which uses phonetically matched reading books for children to take home and practise their phonetic understanding. Children in EYFS, Year 1 and some Year 2 children who are less confident all take part in daily phonics lessons.
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Beyond phonics, children are taught explicit reading skills through the VIPERS model: Vocabulary, Inference, Prediction, Explanation, Retrieval, Summarise. These 6 reading specific skills are powerful tools to build children's confidence and understanding when it comes to reading both familiar and non-familiar texts. These skills are key in developing both a love for reading and a confidence when having to demonstrate their comprehension skills.
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Reading at Home
We strongly encourage children to read at home provide children with the following:
EYFS and KS1
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A matched phonics book from the RWI scheme that is fully decodable (readable)
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A colour-banded book match to their reading ability
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A free-choice library book to promote a love of books
KS2
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A colour-banded book match to their reading ability
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A free-choice library book to promote a love of books
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Parents sign their child's reading diary when they read at home. These 'reads' are then counted and children are rewarded the more 'reads' they do.
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