Reading

Reading at Archdeacon Cambridge's

Reading provides the foundation to be able to access the full breadth of the curriculum and is a key life skill. At Archdeacon Cambridge’s, we place great emphasis on reading for both meaning and pleasure, ensuring that it is at the heart of our daily practice. From Nursery, our children are immersed into the world of language through high quality texts selected from the CLPE ‘Power of Reading’ programme. Our curriculum allows all children to have the tools to decode and be able to read for meaning, whilst encouraging a lifelong relationship with the written word.

Our aim is that children leave Archdeacon Cambridge’s as competent readers, who can recommend books to their peers, have a thirst for reading a wide range of high-quality texts across a range of genres, participate in discussions about books and have an established love of reading for life.

Early Reading at Archdeacon Cambridge's

At Archdeacon Cambridge’s, it is our intention that all our pupils enjoy reading as we strive to develop in them a life-long passion for reading. In order to achieve this, we must ensure children are immersed in a culture that prioritises and promotes the value of early reading i.e that this attitude is embedded from the beginning. From the start of Nursery and into Key Stage 1 and beyond.

We also believe in the importance of a strong and evidence-based systematic and synthetics phonics system. As a school, we use the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised scheme as the core of our Phonics teaching. This scheme is approved by the Department of Education and has proven to be a strong base for the teaching of phonics and the outcomes of its use within our school supports this. It offers precise structure and a ‘whole class mastery’ opportunity. The programme is begun almost immediately as children begin Reception, building upon the ‘Foundations for Reading’ (Little Wandle) taught in Nursery.

Synthetic phonics is taught daily within Reception and Year 1, with further phonics weaved into the Year 2 and KS2 spelling pathways. Pupils are taught as a whole class, focusing on individual sounds, groups of sounds and tricky words within different phases. Progression through the teaching of new sounds, with lessons being fast-paced and highly-interactive, as well as challenging all pupils to apply segmenting and blending skills. This makes phonics lessons not only impactful but also fun for all children. Teachers follow the structure of Revisit & Review (previously learnt phonemes/words), Teach (new phonemes/words) Practise (new learning) and apply (new learning) across the week, focusing on Reading, Writing and Tricky Words.

Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised have resources which show you the sounds your child will be learning and the sequence they will be learning them. Click here to access the parent page of the Little Wandle website.