At St Christophers Academy we share a passion for books with a love of reading at our heart. We know that the development of reading skills, along with speaking and listening skills, is fundamental to the progress that our children make and we are determined to enable our children to become confident, fluent, enthusiastic and effective readers. We have high expectations for our children and encourage them to approach books actively, expecting them to make sense and developing an assortment of strategies to help them not only decode but also to understand what they are reading. All at St Christophers Academy are committed to ensuring that this happens and this policy clearly sets out how reading is taught in our school.

Aims

We aim to develop literate children who:

• Read with enjoyment across a range of genres
• Read for pleasure and enjoyment as well as information
• Love reading and get excited about books
• Have the opportunity to listen to books that are beyond their reading ability, for enjoyment
• Build their bank of sight words to become fluent readers
• Are aware of their own progress and development of reading
• Develop their experiences through a variety of texts including use of libraries, ICT and other available media
• Are provided with an environment in which the teacher models good reading practice and associated skills

 

Early Reading and Phonics

Phonics is given high priority at St Christophers Academy with daily sessions in FS2 and KS1. Children in our nursery (FS1) take part in whole class and small group ability sessions to ensure that children make a positive start. Children are taught phonics following the Letters and Sounds programme.

Children in our early years are given picture books or reading books for parents and carers to share with their children. In FS2 children will be given home reading books when class teachers assess it to be appropriate. These home reading books are phonically decodable books from Collins Big Cat, Oxford Reading Tree or another school scheme.  We also believe that the teaching of phonics and reading should be in a rich language and text based curriculum, where children are taught a range of other strategies to help them become independent readers.

Children in Y1 are tested to check that their phonics decoding is an age appropriate standard. These skills are addressed in daily phonic sessions, using Letters and Sounds and a combination of other resources. Children are routinely assessed for their sound recognition, blending and reading- and extra intervention is organised where appropriate.

 

Planning

Teaching staff plan for a variety of reading opportunities:

Shared reading

In shared reading sessions the teacher’s role is to make overt what good readers do. They assume the role of the expert reader, modelling the reading process to the whole class and providing a high level of support. In shared reading children can access a text which may be challenging to them individually. Reading skills and strategies should be clearly modelled, and discussion should help children to a deeper understanding of the text. Shared reading should have a specific focus and all abilities should be included in discussions with differentiated questions. Teaching objectives are pre-planned and sessions are characterised by explicit teaching of specific reading strategies, oral response and high levels of collaboration.

Guided reading

Guided reading sessions should happen at least 3 times a week. In these sessions children may be split into ability groups or Kagan seating structures may be used, where children practise, refine and apply key reading skills. In KS1 and lower KS2 (in groups of no more than 6), children work through a number of skills over the course of the week, related to the book they are studying. In UKS2 guided reading is conducted as a whole class. The skills covered will relate to the reading focuses/genres for the half term. For example the fiction unit will include prediction, clarifying, questioning and answering activities, which develop over the weeks. The teacher will monitoring the impact on future learning to ensure the children make progress.

Independent reading

Pupils take responsibility for selecting and reading a variety of texts including fiction, non-fiction and poetry from the school reading scheme, class libraries, web pages, print and text around the school etc. In The pupils should be able to read these books independently and comprehend them with little or no teacher/adult support. The focus for the reading is to provide practise, develop reading for pleasure and to develop personal response to text.

Independent reading response

From year 1 children have reading journals, where a range of evidence is collected and can be used to form an accurate assessment of their reading. Teaching staff plan an independent reading response activity for pupils at least once per week. This activity is a written response located in pupils’ reading journals. This provides evidence to support level judgements and the moderation process. It also provides pupils with regular opportunities to formulate written responses to a text.

 

Examples of intervention strategies which may be used in school:

 

• Better readers programme (BRP)

This is a short term intervention program ( 10 weeks, three times a week) aimed at improving key reading skills by focusing on: independent use of reading strategies and skills, increased ability to discuss texts and understand them beyond literal level, increased confidence, leading to increased enjoyments and motivation to read.

 

• Modelled Reading

This is where a group of children work with a teacher, adults precisely model reading sentences according to punctuation and expression and the children copy and repeat these sentences as modelled. This strategy is only used for groups of children who will benefit from this intervention.

 

• Individual Readers:

Provision for individual reading in school occurs for all children in EYFS, KS1 and KS2 with identified children throughout the school. Year groups are focused at different points in the academic year, for example reception in the summer term. In key stage 2, adults will listen to identified children, who are not reading at home and or have been identified from termly standardised reading tests.

Home reading

In the foundation stage children should be sharing a book daily with and adult at home, retelling the story, making predictions about the text, noting print on the page and discussing text. In KS1 children should read at home to an adult daily and adults should write comments in pupils’ reading records. Children receiving little or no support at home with their reading should be identified and receive 1:1 reading support within school. Pupils in KS2 should read at home with an adult at least 3 times a week with the adult writing comments in the pupils’ reading record. Children should still be encouraged to read independently; developing their reading stamina and reading for pleasure.

Reading books

Children take home a variety of books throughout the primary phases in order to develop reading for pleasure and progression in decoding and comprehension:

EYFS	Children will be given an independently chosen library book. As the year progresses, children in FS2 move onto CVC books or scheme books which are level appropriate. These books are phonically decodable and match the phonics phase the children are working on.
KS1	All children are given an independently chosen class library book and a reading scheme/book banded text at appropriate reading age and comprehension level. Children may also have a decodable text at appropriate phonics phase. There is no specific scheme used, books are sourced from a variety of schemes and retailers and book banded for our readers.
KS2	All children are given an independently chosen class library book, an Accelerated Reading scheme text at appropriate reading age and comprehension age, class core reading text and if receiving phonics intervention, a KS2 decodable text at appropriate phonics phase and age related interest level.

 

In the unfortunate event of books being lost by pupils, parents/carers are notified that a £5 charge per item is necessary for the school to restock each item.

The reading environment

Each class will have a class library/book corner, containing a range of fiction, non-fiction and poetry and real life texts. Favourite books, book reviews, collections of books on a similar theme, weekly newspapers or reading displays will also be in classrooms. At lunchtimes there are school reading role models who take part in a range of reading activities to inspire and help other children.

In KS2 the reading display may be linked to Accelerated reader and the children’s achievements.

Assessment

 Children are assessed against the Early Years Foundation Stage Profile (EYFSP) and the National Curriculum. These provide guidance for teachers in understanding how their children will progress through the three stages of the primary curriculum (Foundation Stage, KS1. KS2). Teachers assess children against these frameworks to determine starting points and targets for children in their class.

 Assessment methods

• Home/school reading diaries track daily progress.
• Teachers observe progress during reading activities within lessons daily and annotate planning.
• Reading journals
• Reading session planning records track weekly progress.
• Pupils’ phonics progress is tracked by phase and assessed half-termly.
• The EYFS profile, and National Curriculum year group expectations are used to assess progress periodically half termly.

• Accelerated Reading assessments are carried out at the beginning of every half term and are used in conjunction with Rising Stars reading assessments to inform teacher assessment.
• In KS1 and KS2, teachers record pupils’ progress against the National Curriculum objectives using St Christophers Academy KPIs (Key performance indicators) on the school assessment and tracking system, Classroom Monitor. Classroom Monitor is then used for half termly summative data collection and analysis;
• Rising Stars reading assessments are done half termly and inform termly teacher assessments.

 

Leadership and Management

The literacy coordinator is responsible for reviewing and improving the standards of teaching and learning of reading though out the school by: analysing data, pupil progress through lesson observations, book trawls, pupil interviews, auditing and supporting professional development, purchasing and organising resources.

 

 

 

 

The Intent, implementation and Impact of our PE Curriculum

 

Intent

PE at St Christophers Academy aims to develop the knowledge, skills and competencies essential for mental, emotional, social and physical wellbeing in our children now, and for their future. Physical fitness is an extremely important part of leading a healthier lifestyle. It teaches self-discipline and that to be successful you must work hard, show resilience and have the determination to believe that anything can be achieved. We want our children at St Christophers Academy to use their school values and the core Olympic/ Paralympic values to help them achieve this.

The 3 core Olympic/ Paralympic values are;

1. Excellence

This means doing the best we can, on the field of play or not. The important thing is not winning, but taking part, making progress and enjoying the healthy combination of body, will and mind.

2. Respect

This includes respect for yourself and your body, for other people, for rules and regulations, for sport and for the environment.

3. Friendship

Friendship is at the heart of the sport. It encourages us to see sport as an instrument for mutual understanding between individuals, and between people all over the world.

To help fulfil our intent at St Christophers Academy, we aim to incorporate these core values into our lessons and teach children life skills that will positively impact on their future.

At St Christophers Academy, we deliver high-quality teaching and learning opportunities that inspire all children to succeed in physical activities. We want to teach children to co-operate and collaborate with others, as part of a team whilst understanding equality for all.

Implementation

Children at St Christophers Academy participate in weekly, high quality PE and sporting activities.  Our PE scheme of work incorporates a variety of sports and skills to ensure all children develop the confidence, tolerance and the appreciation of their own and others’ strengths and weaknesses.

At St Christophers Academy, we use the ‘Complete PE scheme of work which aims to teach a deep and broad curriculum of the highest quality.

In addition to our PE lessons, we provide opportunities for all children to engage in extra-curricular activities before, during and after school. Children also have opportunities to take part in local competitive sporting events. This is an inclusive approach which endeavours to encourage not only physical development but also well-being.

We teach lessons so that children;

• Have fun and experience success in sport
• Secure and build on a range of skills they have learnt throughout their time at St Christophers Academy.
• Develop good sporting attitudes
• Understand and use basic rules in games
• Experience positive competition by participating in intra-school and inter- school competition

Children in Key Stage 2 also participate in swimming lessons and ‘The Daily Mile’.

Remote Learning – In the event of a school/ bubble closure or self-isolation, we will set the children short physical activity challenges via our school website. These short physical activity challenges aim to keep the children active whilst at home and can be completed without the use of PE equipment. Children can challenge themselves to achieve bronze, silver and gold achievements.

Impact

At St Christophers Academy, we ensure that our PE Curriculum is progressive and allows children to develop fundamental skills and apply them to a variety of sports and activities.

PE is taught as a basis for life-long learning in which our curriculum aims to improve the wellbeing and fitness of all children at St Christophers Academy. This is done not only through the sporting skills taught, but through the underpinning values and disciplines that PE promotes.

Within our lessons, children are taught about self-discipline and that to be successful you need to take ownership and responsibility of their own health and fitness. We want to motivate children to use these underpinning skills in an independent and effective way in order to live happy and healthy lives. 

Intent

Science can be seen as a quest for knowledge. As an academic subject, it aims to develop scientific knowledge and conceptual understanding through the specific disciplines of biology, chemistry and physics. Scientific method is about developing and evaluating explanations through experimental evidence and modelling.  Because science links direct practical experience with ideas, it can engage learners at many levels and provide them with a way of thinking that will bring skills and techniques that can benefit them in a range of situations. Critical and creative thought is a characteristic that will prove useful to learners throughout their entire lives.  Through science, pupils understand how to make predictions, to gather and analyse results and to test hypotheses.

 

The school aims to:

• Stimulate, excite and satisfy pupils’ curiosity about phenomena in the world; 
• Enable pupils to develop scientific knowledge and conceptual understanding through the specific disciplines of biology, chemistry and physics
• develop pupils’ understanding of the nature, processes and methods of science through different types of science enquiries that help them to answer scientific questions about the world around them
• are equipped with the scientific knowledge required to understand the uses and implications of science, today and for the future

At SCA, our intention is to enable all pupils to meet their maximum potential in all areas of the Science curriculum. It is well recognised that Science can help to develop the skills, attitudes and attributes that can also support learning in other national curriculum subjects. This includes listening skills, the ability to concentrate, creativity, and perseverance, the ability to work in a group, self-confidence and sensitivity towards others.

 

Implementation

To help achieve our intended aims, each SCA year group follow The Kent Scheme of work for Primary Science 2019, which is closely linked to the statements in the National Curriculum 2014.

Every year group will be taught science on a weekly basis. Each new area of learning will beginning with an over-arching enquiry question. This is then broken down into smaller enquiry questions, which the children will spend a lesson or more answering. These enquiry question are based on the National Curriculum statements and take into account children’s prior knowledge gained from a pre-learning task.

 

At the beginning of a new area of learning, children will complete a pre-learning task which will provide teachers with the children’s prior knowledge and understanding. It is also used as a tool to highlight any misconceptions which will inform future planning. Once this area of learning is complete, the children will complete a post learning task providing teachers with how much the children have learnt. In addition to this, children will also complete an end of unit assessment which will assess their knowledge and understanding on the science they have been taught.  

 

In both KS1 and KS2, Science is planned, taught and assessed by the class teacher. Weekly Science lesson will have an intended learning outcome as well as incorporate an element of working scientifically. Children experience hands on indoor and outdoor learning where they are encouraged to ask their own questions and be given the opportunity to use their scientific skills and research to discover the answers. Scientific vocabulary is directly taught by teachers and the use encouraged in order for these to be embedded into the children’s minds.

 

Regular events, such as British Science Week, allow all pupils to come off-timetable, to provide broader provision and the acquisition and application of knowledge and skills. These events often involve families and the wider community. Children are also offered a wide range of visits, trips, visitors and after school science clubs to compliment and broaden the curriculum. These are purposeful and linked with the knowledge being taught in class.

 

Remote learning - In the event of a school, bubble closure or a child having to self-isolate due to Covid-19, we will provide children with online lessons which will have clear learning outcomes linked to the National Curriculum outcomes for Science. Lessons will be well-thought-out to ensure that the learning is accessible remotely and any resources needed will either be provided by the school or suggestions made on what can be used from around the house/garden etc. 

 

Impact

The successful approach at SCA results in a fun, engaging, high-quality science education, that provides children with the foundations and knowledge for understanding the world. By engaging the children with the local environment ensures that they learn through varied and first hand experiences of the world around them. Frequent, continuous and progressive learning inside and outside the classroom is embedded throughout the science curriculum. Through various workshops, trips and interactions with experts, children have the understanding that science has changed our lives and that it is vital to the world’s future prosperity. Children at SCA overwhelmingly enjoy science and this results in motivated learners with sound scientific understanding.