Reading is at the heart of our curriculum. Every child at Sion is a reader and it is our intent that every child will be inspired by the curriculum and the environment to develop a love of reading and the skills to be able to read with fluency and understanding.
Writing plays a key role in our whole curriculum. By the end of Year 2, it is our intention that our children have begun to develop a love of writing, which they will carry on into KS2 and into Senior school life. Our children will be able to convey their ideas clearly and creatively using the written word. Through our curriculum, we intend to enable our children to become writers who are able to read, edit and further improve their writing, confidently using the skills of grammar, punctuation and phonics that they have been taught.
Phonics and early reading are taught across the school. Every morning phonics sessions take place lasting between 15-20 minutes. These sessions involve using phonics as a tool for learning sounds for decoding when reading, and for spelling when writing. At Sion we know that reading is crucial for children to access all areas of the curriculum and we place a high importance on time spent reading with our children. In KS 1 each child is heard to read every day at school and ERIC (Everyone read in class) is a daily occurrence throughout the Junior School. We use core texts to inspire and lead other areas of learning. We ensure our environment is vocabulary rich through well informed and labelled displays, reading areas and a beautiful library which is timetabled for use across the school. We value regular story times which foster a love of reading and enable the development of language and comprehension skills. One to one reading is important to us, as it gives children the time to talk about what they are reading and what they think about it, so children are heard to read daily by staff.
We recognise that reading is fundamental to the writing process because children will successfully write when they understand the key features of a sentence and are beginning to build up both their vocabulary and an understanding of different text types by the end of Year 2.
At Sion Junior School, we use visual stimuli and books to inspire our children to write. Adults model examples of effective writing in the classrooms to support the children in being successful in their own writing. We support our children to develop and build their writing stamina as they progress through the school, writing in all areas of the curriculum. In Key Stage 1, children learn to apply their phonics skills to spell, alongside learning the spelling of common exception words. From Reception to Year 6 Spelling and Grammar (SpaG) is taught weekly and the children are expected to apply this knowledge in the writing in all subjects.
Weekly spellings are progressive through Years 1 to 6, with the expectation that learned spellings are then correctly used in everyday writing.
Children at Sion will develop a love of reading. Children will have the skills to decode words and read fluently while confidently talking about their understanding of what they have read. During each phonics and reading session, adults are listening to and observing children to ensure they are making progress and to plan their next steps. Each half term, assessments are used to make an assessment against the Literacy ELGs and the National Curriculum objectives.
Our children make good progress within their own context. By the end of their time at the Junior School the children will have been exposed to a variety of genres and texts covering a wide range of cultures and themes. Our aim is to promote a love of writing, an appreciation of world culture and a rich understanding of the impact that the written word can have.
A co-educational, independent school with a strong ethos, successfully providing education to children and young people from ages 3 – 18
