Intent

We value the importance of learning to read and try to engage children in their reading journey from a very early age. All children will have the opportunity to access high quality texts through having stories read to them, learning how to read individual words, being taught how to understand what they are reading and through learning the skills they need to develop a love of reading. 

English is at the core of everything we do at Armley Park Primary School. If children cannot read, write and communicate effectively, they cannot access the curriculum and more importantly, contribute positively to society, as they get older.

At Armley Park, we understand that for children to be successful readers and writers, they must also be confident speakers and listeners. Through the delivery of our reading curriculum we ensure a consistent and robust teaching and learning of early reading and phonics in FS and KS1, so that pupils are able to read with increased speed and fluency and access the wider curriculum.  Communicating thoughts, feelings and emotions is a vital life skill, which we support children to develop in all our lessons. Whether it is using a talk partner, sharing ideas with the class or speaking in a school assembly, we model, promote and teach high levels of communication skills and promote ‘showing five’ to develop children’s ability to listen effectively both to peers and to adults across any setting in school. Key vocabulary which we wish the children to learn and use is identified and taught in all curriculum areas and lessons. Whole class shared reading is used throughout the school to enable all children to share high quality texts and develop skills in reading comprehension and fluency. 

Phonics at Armley Park

As a school, we follow the Floppy's Phonics programme. It is a rigorous, easy-to-use systematic synthetic phonics teaching programme for early reading and writing success. It introduces the children to the letters and sounds (the alphabetic code) that are at the foundation of all reading and writing. 

It follows a 4-part planning sequence: 

1. Revisit and review

2. Teach

3. Practise 

4. Apply

This is taught over 2 sessions. Part 1 and 2 happen on the 1st day and is whole class. It revisits previously taught sounds and graphemes in part 1. Then we teach the focus sound and grapheme using flashcards and Floppy's Phonics online. 

Session 2 includes parts 3 and 4 - it is a longer session and the focus is on practising the new sound and grapheme taught. We use the sound book and activity sheet to practise these.

More information about the scheme can be found on the link below. There are some useful videos on here (further down the page) that are worth watching as they show you how to pronounce the pure sounds correctly and how to blend sounds to read words.

https://home.oxfordowl.co.uk/reading/reading-schemes-oxford-levels/read-with-oxford-guide/

Owlcotes Elements

A Way With Words

During their time at Armley Park,  pupils are offered a  range of opportunities to foster a love of words, broaden their vocabulary and support their communication skills. 

Our youngest children will take part in author and poet workshops as part of Focus Weeks and our annual Literature Festival. Y2 pupils  see a live pantomine and our Y3 pupils will take part in a Spelling Bee competition held across our Multi Academy Trust. Our oldest children take part in the Owlcotes Book Awards which involves them reading a collection of diverse high quality fiction.  Y6 children take part in a  Multi Academy Trust  debating competition which culminates in a local event at Pudsey Civic Hall.