Reading Development

At Falconer we recognise that many of uour boys have not had the opportunity previously to develop their reading skills. As a result we have placed a significant emphasis on reading in our timetable. Children have a reading opportunity outside of lessons once a day when tutors support them to find something interesting with which to practice their reading. 

Reading for pleasure

Within the context of reading, we aim to help them develop skills for reading including:

• Recognise the importance of reading in their lives and in their futures
• Identify, read and understand key vocabulary
• Decode text, read for meaning, with confidence and understanding;
• Understand, describe and retrieve information, ideas or events from a text;
• Summarise and sequence the main ideas from a text;
• Identify and comment on writers’ purposes and viewpoints and the overall effect of a text on the reader;
• Read a range of genres in fiction and poetry;
• Discuss books with reference to author, illustrator, genre, theme and characters in order to express personal responses with increasing fluency;

Ultimately, we believe that reading is the key to academic success and strive to ensure all make good progress based on starting points. 

Phonics and Early Reading

Some student at Falconer need more support than others with reading. Thse students are supported with SmartKids phonics programme throughout the school, reading books at the appropriate level, a reading log to help them celebrate how much they are learning and a specialist teacher avialble twice a week to support the development of age approrpiate materials. A quiet, discrete reading area allows students to read in privacy where this is their preference.