OUR AIM: As a school we are committed to continuously raise standards in Literacy. Our aim is to ensure the highest standards of reading and literacy for every child by providing them with the skills necessary to read with confidence, fluency and understanding. About the Oxford Reading Tree (ORT): As the UK’s most successful reading scheme, Oxford Reading Tree has helped millions of children from all over the world learn to read, and love to read. Rooted in reading for pleasure and with synthetic phonics at its heart, Oxford Reading Tree’s well-loved characters, breadth (over 800 books!) and varied writing styles give children everything they need to become confident readers. The ORT gets children involved in all learning areas, Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing. Most interesting is the link between the stories and the children’s prior knowledge and of their own experiences. As well as motivating and stimulating, the ORT also aims to develop the children’s language rather than sticking to limited vocabulary. It is a flexible programme that can be used in many different classrooms setting (e.g., whole class work, group work and independent work) Grouping students in separate reading groups Some parents often ask what the school’s motive behind grouping students in various reading groups is. This is one form of evaluating and assessing each child’s progress across Reading. Children should not be felt stressed out because they cannot cope in a group, hence leading to be put off reading in the end.  What is grouping? Grouping is one of many teaching practices. It puts students into temporary groups to work together for only as long as is needed for them to develop identified skills or to increase their work pace to complete learning activities. The groups change often based on students’ needs, skill development, or knowledge.  How is grouping done?

• Prior to the children’s yearly promotion, the past teachers meet with the new year teachers to discuss on the children’s last performance results.
• Using these results, children are placed into different groups, according to their needs.
• This allows the teachers to better focus on specific skills and objectives lacking for these children, per
• From there, each child will either become a fast and skillful reader or will need further assistance to improve in reading, acquiring needed skills and strategies, and to become an independent reader.
• After each half term break, students from all groups can either be promoted or demoted to another group; or stay in his/her respective group, depending on how they worked throughout the first half of the term.
• This is done to give the children the opportunity to prepare themselves to read with confidence, fluency and understanding and to encourage them to acquire a love for literacy.

  HOMEWORK: Students take books home to read for pleasure. Books are exchanged every week during the double Reading periods. Parents are involved and are encouraged to closely monitor their child(ren) during that time to ensure proper reading is taking place. The new series from Oxford Reading Tree Programme-Word Sparks; is well designed with guidance from home on how to go about as parents, to confidently get involved in their child’s development in Literacy. Should the forms not be signed, and books not returned on due date, parents are informed via the ‘Home Book Record’ forms where both parents and teachers sign to acknowledge that reading did/did not take place home. This is a way for teachers to keep track of the students and parents’ involvement with reading homework from home. Some students (independent readers) might come home with worksheets based on the story read or will be asked to write a book review. ACHIEVING OUR AIMS: As a private school, we will constantly strive to:

• Expose our children to a stimulating range of books and texts (from our reading programme, as well as our School Library collection and other E-Book services provided from School).
• Provide a range of reading experiences including individual, paired, group, whole class, shared and guided reading opportunities.
• Involve and encourage parents in the reading process as much as possible (eg; monitor books coming home – signing and commenting on the form, make ample time to hear their child reading).
• Ensure reading is both structured and enjoyable.
• Use record keeping (weekly) and regular assessment (by half term breaks) to monitor progress.
• Provide speedy support for children with Special Educational Needs as appropriate.
• Encourage independence through the development of a variety of reading skills.
• Challenge our children to become confident readers with a true love of books.
• Present reading as a lifelong skill, something to treasure and not to fear or be seen as a chore.

Word Sparks Structure (Oxford Levels 1 to 6)   Books at Oxford Levels 1 to 6 are fully decodable and aligned to Letters and Sounds Sets from Reception/P1 to Year 1/ P2. This helps to match the phonics teaching with children’s reading practice, ensuring that they progress in small steps with confidence. Each level contains 4 regular texts (child text, with vocabulary prompts) and 4 partner texts (adult text + child text). (Oxford Levels 7 to 12) Books at Oxford Levels 7 to 12 adhere to a reliable structure that supports their progress and helps you match every child to the right book. These books are designed to support comprehension and fluency while further developing children’s vocabulary.  The Word Sparks Books  Rich texts provide an important way for children to learn about the world. Word Sparks books have been written to introduce children to a fascinating wealth of new knowledge, both through the topics covered in Non-Fiction titles, but also through the variety of Fiction that allows them to look at the world through the eyes of others and think about ideas beyond their own experience.  Introducing MyOn at the school  MyOn is essentially an online library which has some additional tools. It is a supplementary source of reading material for home and school use. The launching of MyOn was a great success, with a high percentage of readers from Primary One to Secondary levels. New School Project on Board

•  The kindergarten will now have their own library. This facility plays a fundamental role in every child’s learning development at a very early stage. Apart from books at this level, play stations and centres are additional educational resources. Free play is also important as it gives students the opportunity in becoming independent individuals who can express their own way of thinking, through games. In addition, these skills, support literacy and education, and help shape our young readers to become confident, creative, and innovative learners.
• Providing a comfortable learning space is part of the importance to encourage students to have a love for books. Apart from the Library, the school has a specific room set up with books and other related resources readily available to use, for both teachers and students. It also gives a student and tutor an opportunity for one-on-one interaction and open conversation. Additionally, the colourful and friendly environment setting will give students a place to meet up and when reading for pleasure and enjoyment.