Reading

The pupils at our school are taught English through the Literary Curriculum. The Literary Curriculum, designed by the Literacy Tree, is a book-based approach to the teaching of Primary English that places children’s literature at the core.

Our love of reading begins from the very first day a child begins at our school; all our Reception children receive a book from us to welcome them to our school and begin their reading experience. Our structured approach to reading is carefully designed and sequenced to ensure the best results for our children. As the children move through the Early Years and Key Stage 1, phonics remains a high priority and is taught daily. Children work through our fully decodable reading scheme and read frequently with an adult in school. As their reading progresses, we work on developing a pupil’s vocabulary and comprehension skills through structured through whole class guided reading sessions. Activities are carefully planned to ensure that reading stamina also develops as children progress through school.

We plan in time in the day to read to our children so that pupils can engage with high quality texts and learn new vocabulary and language which can support them to make excellent progress in both reading and writing.

The pupils visit the library and can choose books they wish to read. We ensure that the books available to our pupils cover a range of genres. Each classroom also has a dedicated area where pupils have access to a variety of books.

We hold events such as the annual book fair, book swaps, World Book Day, poetry day to ignite a love of reading across all year groups.

• Pupils begin to understand that reading provides opportunities to: discover new knowledge, further their learning, ignite their imagination, and understand more about different people, cultures and the world around them.   

• Pupils become confident readers who can read fluently across a variety of genres. 

• Pupils are confident reading aloud using expression and intonation 

• Pupils have a growth mindset and are excited about reading. They are proud of their reading achievements. 

• Pupils can comprehend a range of different text types using strategies taught in class as well as drawing on their preferred meta cognitive strategies  

• Pupils are familiar with vocabulary, inference, prediction, explanation, retrieval and summarising skills to answer comprehension questions 

• Pupils can justify ideas and opinions using higher level thinking and referring to the text as evidence 

• Our children enjoy learning and using a wide range of vocabulary, excited about learning synonyms and antonyms for new vocabulary  

• progress across the school is monitored by the subject leader and senior leadership team through: book looks, lesson observations, sharing best practise, pupil voice interviews, learning walks and data   

• Children are fluent, confident and able readers, who can access a range of texts for pleasure and enjoyment, as well as use their reading skills to unlock learning and all areas of the curriculum 

• Reading is the key to all learning and so the impact of our reading curriculum goes beyond the results a deep love of literature across a range of genres, cultures and styles is enhanced.