By the time children leave Cornagague, our aim is that they will be competent readers equipped with the skills necessary to continue their studies in second level education. We hope to foster a love of reading in each child, to develop their skills in comprehension and reading for in formation and provide them with appropriate word attack strategies through a structured reading and language programme.

We recognise that many children are not ready to begin reading when they enter Primary 1. Bullock emphasised that the teacher must help children towards readiness for beginning to read. It is she who must make the judgement as to when the child is ready.

Pre-school meetings are held with parents and the Delta programme is introduced. On up the school we participate in the Paired Reading Programme every fourth year. The school has always involved itself in base line assessment.

From the beginning we hope to foster an interest in reading, to encourage children to become habitual readers and to use books for pleasure as well as seeking out information.

We hope to provide an attractive and up to date range of books and reading schemes which will be replenished as fmances allow.

ACTUAL READING SCHEME:

Currently we use the structured reading scheme of Reading 360, followed by Wide Range Readers. [Staff feel although the Wide Range Reading Scheme is very structured it needs to be updated]. We have bought some class novels which we use to supplement the Wide Range Reading Scheme in P3 and P4, and the majority of children are reading class novels by P5.

We also use additional material including picture books, comics, teacher produced material at the infant stage, novels, paperbacks and general interest books etc, by the end of Key Stage 2.

We will avail of the Youth Library Service, Mobile Library, Central Collection, and other sources to assemble our stock of reading material. We will also use relevant items of technology such as computers, tape recorders, videos, TV and radio.

Children in Key Stage 2 will be encouraged to keep records of their reading material and to select from as wide a range as possible. Children will be urged to treat books with care and leave them in good condition for the next reader. Through our Reading Programme we hope to develop children’s comprehension skills. Questioning at literal and higher order levels will deepen awareness and understanding of the written word. These ideas will be adapted for use with younger children so that they are introduced early to the experience of searching for meaning and structure in written tests.

Activities will include oral questions, prediction, inference, sequencing, doze procedure, compare and contrast, empathy, silent and oral reading, drama, similarities and differences etc.

Children will also be given the opportunity to develop their study skills and reading for information through the use of index, contents, encyclopaedias, reference books, atlases, dictionaries, catalogues, timetables, newspapers, calendars and charts.
Word attack skills will be promoted and fostered through various strategies including phonics and whole word approaches.

Reading progress will be monitored by the class teacher on an ongoing basis and by the use of a standardised reading test. Children will come to realise reading is a life skill.

They will become familiar with the language of reading — eg, author, character, contents page, index, punctuation marks.

GENERAL AIMS FOR READING

By the end of P7 it is our aim children :­

1. Have fostered an appreciation of books and an enjoyment of reading.

2. Will be able to read aloud and silently from a variety of sources for a variety of purposes:­enjoyment, understanding and information.

3. Will be able to read fluently and accurately at a reading age at least equivalent to hiycbronological age.

4. Will be knowledgeable about the language of reading — from author, character, content page to question mark, exclamation mark etc.