Patcham Junior School

Research shows that when phonics is taught in a structured way – starting with the easiest sounds and progressing through to the most complex – it is the most effective way of teaching young children to read. When children arrive at Patcham Junior School in year 3, many children still require good phonics teaching to be able to tackle new words and go on to read any kind of text fluently and confidently, and to read for enjoyment.

Reading is a vital part of the junior curriculum and should be an enjoyable experience for children. We encourage children to develop a positive attitude towards literature of all kinds and believe that parents play a vital role in this process. Time is allocated each day for guided and independent reading in the classrooms. Each class has a selection of fiction books, topic collections and reference books for research. We are also developing our school library, which we use, along with Patcham Community Library, which is located next door to the school.

Click below to access a STAR reading test or do a quiz.

Click here to access AR at home 

DEAR, or Drop Everything And Read is an approach to reading that we share with Patcham High School. On a Friday afternoon everyone in the whole school stops what they are doing and reads. We use Accelerated Reader to track children’s reading skills and help us ensure every child is reading a book at just the right level.