We aim to share our love of reading with all of our pupils at Gig Mill and encourage them to choose books that are interesting, enjoyable, from varied authors and those that challenge.

Early Reading

At Gig Mill, we prioritise the development of early reading by putting reading at the heart of everything we do. Through the use of robust and systematic teaching of phonics this provides an effective transition into independent reading, which then subsequently encourages our older pupils to read widely and deeply. Phonics is undoubtedly an essential tool here but as a school, we are aware that whilst phonic knowledge enables pupils to decode words, it does not teach them to know their meaning. We achieve this by providing opportunities for our pupils to sing, hear and join in with stories, to gain an understanding of what words actually mean through early, verbal comprehension. These solid and secure foundations are then built upon to enable the children of Gig Mill to be fluent, confident readers and adopt a love for reading.

Phonics

We want to help all of our children at Gig Mill to become successful readers, who love reading. In order to decode (read) words, children are taught through a systematic phonic approach following the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised scheme which captivates our children. Daily, discrete phonics sessions are taught in whole class groupings and sessions are fast paced, interactive and challenging. Children are encouraged to apply their phonics skills across all curriculum areas (and have further opportunities to apply enhanced provisions in EYFS and home learning.)

Children are assessed at the end of each unit. Data is put onto the Little Wandle Phonics Tracker for analysis. Assessments enable teachers to assess each pupil's phonics ability by instantly recording whether a child can successfully pronounce the phoneme or word. Results for each assessment are recorded in class/phonic groups, which in turn tracks pupils' phonics ability over time to allow teachers to monitor and implement targeted intervention to aid phonic progression.

The Little Wandle website provides resources to help you support your child with saying their sounds and writing their letters. There are also some useful videos so that you can see how phonics is taught at school and feel confident about supporting your child with reading at home. Click on the image below to be redirected the Little Wandle website to access the Little Wandle Parent Information Pack and see how you can continue to support your child with reading and phonics at home.

EYFS & KS1 Guided Reading

Reading at Gig Mill encompasses the teaching of guided group reading in which the responses are verbal, in addition to the whole class teaching of reading in which the children record their responses in reading journals.

Collins Big Cat for Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised have devised fully decodable books matched to our programme progression to ensure every child has access to a book they can read. All children in EYFS and Year 1 participate in three reading practice sessions each week. Children focus on decoding, reading with prosody and comprehension. Children need to be given regular opportunities to apply the phonics they have learned, by reading fully decodable books. Reading sessions are well-planned and executed to enable children to become confident readers who read with understanding.

High-quality texts used from our reading book scheme are taken from the reading age of the child to ensure that the pitch is appropriate.

Reading Books

Little Wandle resources are used in EYFS and KS1, in order to support every child on their reading journey to develop a strong phonic knowledge and a love of reading. As they progress through each phonic phase, children will become fluent readers through high-quality fiction and non-fiction banded books. Each fully decodable book is expertly aligned to each child’s Little Wandle journey to ensure all pupils in EYFS and KS1 move from decoding words to reading fluently and for pleasure. Each pupil’s reading journey is tracked to ensure systematic progression for each pupil by their class teacher.

Little Wandle Fluency – Year 2 and 3

We want all children to have the secure phonic knowledge needed to be able to read. But being a fluent reader is so much more. We need to make teaching reading our priority so that every child can unlock all aspects of reading. The fluency programme teaches all aspects of reading using vibrant, diverse and engaging chapter books created by contemporary authors and illustrators. Each book has been carefully devised to support children as they progress in reading fluency through Years 2, 3 and beyond; making sure every child can become a confident, fluent and motivated reader.

Whole Class Reading – Year 3 and 6

Children from year 3 upwards, who are fluent readers, access whole class reading. Staff plan for a 30-minute daily reading lessons teaching the requirements of the National Curriculum in line with content domains. Children explore reading skills and develop fluency trough a range of engaging stimuli, including a range of genres and texts taken from high quality reading spines. Texts are selected based on their literary merit providing the children to experience a range of contexts and supports their understanding of English now and in the future.

Reading for Pleasure

At Gig Mill Primary School we believe that reading should be a fundamental skill which is developed to support lifelong learning. Our aim is to develop and embed a strong, sustainable reading culture and reading community, where our confident and competent readers will foster a love of reading through exposure to rich and varied literature, in which they are empowered to exercise their freedom of choice and independence. Inspiring children to read for choice is their fundamental right, which underpins strong foundations for our pupils to be successful through the wider curriculum and beyond.

We acknowledge the importance of sharing stories with children at all ages. At the end of each day, class teachers provide a reading for pleasure session for children. This may consist of the teacher reading the class reader, children reading to the class reader, shared reading in groups or independent reading. This is to encourage a love of reading in our children. High quality literature is shared with the children from the 'Additional Texts' section of our reading handbook.

School Library

We have two school libraries located in KS1 and KS2, which have been stocked with lots of books that the children asked for, including new authors, new topics and those that cover current issues worldwide. We encourage our pupils to access their local libraries, tapping into the events and opportunities that they provide, as well as accessing the wealth of books on offer.

Religious Education

'Coming Soon'

Science

Science Curriculum Map

Social, Moral, Spiritual and Cultural (SMSC)

'Coming Soon'

Writing

At Gig Mill we value the strong connection that reading and writing shares within all curriculum areas. Our English curriculum is carefully planned to create opportunities for children to write with consideration to the reader and read while considering the effect the writer had intended. We aim for all children to be equipped with the skills and knowledge that they need to be able to communicate their own thoughts and ideas through writing.

Our approach to writing encourages a broad and balanced programme of study, which enables children to produce sustained pieces of writing across a range of topics, subjects and genres. Through the writing opportunities we give to the children, we aim to engage and motivate pupils to take pride in their writing and celebrate their writing successes. Handwriting across school is taught using the Kinetic Letters teaching programme. Pupils are taught using a systematic and energising whole school approach, leading to fluent, legible joined writing in Key Stage 2.

We are currently in the process of adopting ‘The Write Stuff’ approach to deliver the writing curriculum to ensure clarity to the mechanics of writing. This approach supports the teaching and learning of developing independent writers. Lessons are divided into “experiences” to stimulate writing and “sentence stacking”. Sentence stacking lessons are bite-sized chunks that have live, teacher modelling at the heart of them.