At Ryecroft School we have designed and planned our curriculum to meet the individual needs of all pupils. We have 3 curriculum pathways called nurture, enriched and mastery – all designed to challenge pupils and prepare them for next stages of learning.
We ensure that our therapeutic services and integrated into our day to day curriculum ensuring that the holistic needs of pupils are met.
Our curriculum is designed to empower young people and to give them the best possible life skills so that they can achieve cultural capital. We promote a love for reading and have ‘rocket phonics’ integrated into our curriculum to promote pupils literacy skills
The school day starts at 8:40am where we welcome pupils in to have breakfast with us before they start their first lesson at 9:00am. Lessons last 45 minutes and will include time for pupils to have sensory breaks, exercise and therapy onsite.
Pupils have a break time at 10:30am and then lunch is at 12:45pm. Afternoon learning time focuses on pupils character education, personal development and PSHE and relationships education.
Ryecroft Reading for Pleasure
Rationale:
We want everyone at Ryecroft School to read for enjoyment – no tasks, no direct teaching – Love of books and the world!
Reading for pleasure has a dramatic impact on educational outcomes, wellbeing and will have a huge impact on preparing our student for adulthood.
Engaging our students in the rich language of books and storytelling will improve their communication and interaction.
Intent
- To develop the prerequisites to reading through a range of approaches in the pursuit of meaning e.g. objects, pictures, symbols, signs, sounds and simple words.
- To develop the ability to attend, anticipate, respond and interact
- To increase communication and language through a rich variety of reading vocabulary.
- To offer opportunities for enjoyment through inclusive reading.
- To develop social interactions through meaningful and imaginative experiences of reading.
- To excite our students with the texts and stories we offer them
- To model reading for pleasure to all our students on every Pathway
- To reward all students for Love of reading
Implementation – Overview
We strive to promote Love of Reading every day: our students on all of our pathways enjoy a variety of stories, in different multisensory forms, throughout the day. The books linking their curriculum have been well-researched and chosen for their suitability dependent on pupils needs.
We have an extensive library of books that children can enjoy at 2.30pm every day to read for their own enjoyment. This is inclusive of sensory stories available for enjoyment.
All staff in the class will share stories with the children, this will be done through whole class story time, small groups and 1:1 stories dependent on pupil needs. Appropriate communication tools for each child will be used.
Every classroom has a ‘Reading Area’ appropriate to the needs of the students: class-based groups in their usual classroom; sensory reading areas used by some learners on the seedlings pathway; subject based reading areas. These areas will promote reading for pleasure and will be reviewed and updated through the year.
The class-based reading area will have carefully chosen, age-appropriate reading resources based on the class group and the needs of the individual.
All classes have a weekly library session to promote Love of Reading and will take home a bedtime reading book to enjoy with their families and a Little Wandle Phonics Book matched to their reading assessment.
Our pupils who are able to will visit the local library fortnightly to engage with a wider range of stories and opportunities.
Impact:
Developing a Love of Reading will:
- Promote wellbeing through excitement and anticipation of texts and activities.
- Promotes wellbeing by providing a relaxing activity within a stimulating environment.
- Promote inclusivity for all learners.
- Develop listening and attention skills.
- Develop all communication skills and communication systems.
- Improve vocabulary and language, reading skills such as inference and deduction which may transfer to spelling and writing skills for some of our students.
- Impact positively on Preparing for Adulthood outcomes.