Intent
Reading is a vital skill and this should be reflected in the time spent at school on reading activities. The school aims to:
- Foster a life-long love of reading, encouraging the children to be reflective readers by listening to and interacting with a variety of texts
- Develop fluent, confident and independent readers through a structured focus on word, sentence and text level knowledge
- Develop and extend the children’s vocabulary
- Ensure children can read aloud with clarity
- Provide plenty of opportunities to read for pleasure and help children to recognise its value
- Ensure reading is a transferrable skill and that children are reading across the wider curriculum
- Develop a consistent approach to reading teaching in order to close any gaps and to target the highest number of children attaining the expected standard and higher.
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Implementation
Reading skills are developed by:
Reading for pleasure
- Allowing opportunities to talk about books through ‘book talk’ and post-it note recommendations, creating book reviews and teacher’s ‘golden tickets’
- The use of high-quality books is at the heart of our school’s successful approach to engage and support children to become motivated and independent readers
- Essential story time at the end of each day where teachers read to build on many foundational skills, introduce vocabulary and provide a model of fluent and expressive reading
- Children having allocated time to read books of their choosing or explore books that teachers (or children through book recommendations) have selected for them
Reading for meaning
- Whole class reading sessions focus on our school ‘Reading Roles’ to develop competent readers who can discuss and record their level of understanding of texts read
- Vocabulary is explored and developed, with teachers providing opportunities to explore definitions of new words and make links between these and known words.
- Teachers provide opportunities to read in different subject areas, especially English lessons which are book-based and at the heart of our themed, creative curriculum.
Reading for practice
- Assessment ensures that children who find reading challenging are supported through intervention/ prioritised daily reading and more able readers are challenged through personalised targets during 1:1 reading
- Adults/carers actively support our reading journey by reading with their children and recording observations in their home-school diaries
- Children read during daily whole class reading sessions and opportunities are made to read in other subjects
- Teachers use free reading time to listen to readers 1:1, with a particular focus on the lowest 20% who read at least once more a week with teachers/LSAs
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Impact
The ability to read is fundamental to many aspects of life and is central to developing an understanding in a wide range of areas of the curriculum. The importance of reading is understood by all pupils, parents/carers and staff and it is an enjoyable and life-long pursuit. Success in reading is crucial in developing children’s self-confidence and motivation to learning in general.
- By engaging in and listening to high-quality texts, children display enthusiasm for reading and choose to read for pleasure
- Children read for meaning and for pleasure, staff enthusiastically share texts and show themselves as readers and parents actively support us
- Children choose books independently and immerse themselves in topics of interest in lessons and beyond
- Children read in other subject areas and as a result their skills are enhanced and their understanding of the world is strengthened
- The importance of reading is understood by all pupils to encourage motivation and engagement
- A high number of children achieve the expected standard or higher, and through target interventions those who find reading challenging are helped to catch up