Reading at BPS
At the Bilingual Primary School we understand that the ability to read is a key life skill that opens up a new world of learning for children. We are passionate about reading and want our pupils to share this love of reading for enjoyment as well as learning.
As a school we use a selection of strategies to enable children to become skilled readers. Phonics is a tool we teach to help children learn to read as well as other skills children require to be fluent readers. The school follows the RWI Programme through which our pupils learn the 44 common sounds and how to sound-blend words for reading (decoding). The programme includes fiction and non- fiction books which challenge children to learn their sounds helping them to become confident readers and thus enabling them to access a range of books to read for enjoyment.
At the Bilingual Primary School we believe that equipping children with the skills they need to decode early their school careers will enable them to develop confidence in reading and a love of learning.
Becoming a reader is not only about phonics though - we teach children to read in teacher led guided reading sessions with a group of children at a similar level - very few children are heard reading individually. Guided reading is followed by two structured independent sessions when children explore further an aspect of the book or independent reading with a focus on ‘magpieing’ any interesting or useful vocabulary/ ideas/ words/ structures which link to the current or previous writing genres. Guided reading offers not only the opportunity to become confident and competent decoders but also to explore meaning, characterisation and settings and to develop the skills of inference and deduction. Teachers keep detailed records during these sessions and use their observations to make their termly assessments and to feed back to you about your child’s progress.
We do not follow any particular reading scheme but use a variety of books matched to childrens' needs and interests.