Reading & phonics

Reading at Clifton Primary School

At Clifton, we believe that all children should be able to read a wide range of text types as a vehicle to life long learning. We therefore teach the skills of reading from the youngest age and promote a love of reading for a multitude of purposes.

Early Reading and Phonics

In Foundation stage and Key Stage 1 children are taught essential reading skills through Read, Write, inc. Children take part in daily phonics and reading sessions matched to their stage of development.

Children will learn sounds (phonemes) and the letters that represent them (graphemes). Then, when able to blend sounds to read some words, they read books containing sounds they have learned.

This therefore helps to build children’s confidence, fluency and enjoyment. Children continue on this programme until they can read most words fluently and accurately without the need to overtly sound out.

Reading Mastery

Throughout their primary education, children are taught skills to become masters of reading by developing their understanding of texts and love of reading.

Within these lessons the whole class read the same text with an emphasis on comprehension through carefully planned, skillful questioning by the teacher. Through this all children have access to high quality texts and are enabled to develop the skills of reading to learn.

‘There is a very strong focus on checking on how well different groups of pupils are learning, so that any falling behind can be immediately helped to make better progress’…

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‘Leaders have high expectations of behaviour for all pupils.’…

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‘Leaders have embedded a carefully sequenced, knowledge-rich curriculum from the early years through to Year 6.’…

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‘In religious
education lessons, teachers provide opportunities for pupils to understand and appreciate the different life experiences of their friends.’…

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‘The multi-academy trust has provided teachers with detailed suggestions for how to adapt every aspect of the curriculum.’…

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‘Leaders ensure that pupils can develop essential life skills through activities such as learning to dress independently and simple food preparation’…

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‘The introduction of a comprehensively sequenced phonics programme is helping children to establish successful early reading skills from the very start of Reception.’…

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‘From the earliest stages in Reception, adults skilfully support pupils to explain their mathematical thinking.’…

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‘Parents are overwhelmingly supportive, commenting very positively on the school’s many strong features’…

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‘Teachers ensure that they enrich the curriculum through an extensive range of visits and experiences’…

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‘Pupils with highly complex special educational needs receive outstanding levels of support.’…

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‘Leaders help pupils to develop resilience and self-confidence in their learning.’…

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‘Pupils are happy and they feel safe.’…

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‘Teaching and learning are consistently good. As a result most pupils make good progress in reading, writing and mathematics from often significantly below-average starting points’…

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‘The harmonious relationships among all groups, from a wide variety of backgrounds, are a strength of the school’…

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‘The excellent relationships between teachers and their pupils ensure lessons are purposeful and enjoyable’…

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‘ A well-developed
programme for relationships education helps pupils to understand the importance of tolerance and respect for others.’…

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‘Pupils feel very safe in school because of the school’s rigorous approach to keeping them safe’…

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‘The Clifton ‘Good Citizen’ programme helps pupils to develop the communication and interaction skills they need for
later life.’…

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‘Pupils contribute significantly to the successes of the school through their outstanding behaviour and readiness to learn’…

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‘Children make a good start in the early years because of good teaching’…

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‘There is a strong sense of community in this school.’…

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‘The range of enrichment activities the school provides is excellent and contributes a great deal to pupils’ learning’…

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‘Relationships between adults and pupils are extremely positive.’…

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‘Pupils demonstrate outstanding levels of tolerance and respect for other pupils and adults’…

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‘Teachers use
rigorous assessments to make sure that all pupils make good progress.’…

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‘The highly successful promotion of pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is at the heart of the school’s work’…

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‘Teachers provide opportunities for pupils to share experiences of their cultural beliefs and celebrations.’…

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‘Staff morale is high, team spirit is very strong, and all are committed to continued improvement. This helps to explain why the school is continuing to improve’…

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‘Comprehensive subject plans identify the essential knowledge and vocabulary that pupils need to learn over time.’…

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‘Leaders leave no stone unturned to ensure that the very diverse school population is treated equally and that there is a relentless focus on driving up pupil performance’…

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