English - Reading

The ability to read is fundamental to children’s development as independent learners and has a direct effect on progress in all areas of the curriculum. Reading aids children’s understanding of the world as well as supporting their emotional, social, intellectual and spiritual development whilst also allowing their imagination to take them to new worlds. Therefore, reading is one of the highest priorities in our school and we explicitly teach our pupils the importance of reading to a successful later life.

From Reception, children are taught synthetic phonics following the Letters and Sounds scheme to allow them to decode written letters and spoken sounds. With a strong knowledge of phonemes and their corresponding graphemes provides children with a core foundation on which they can develop their skills in reading as they move through the school. Children are taught to apply their phonics to segment and blend phonemes in unfamiliar words to read and also to segment sounds in a word in order to write the correct graphemes. From Year 2 upwards, emphasis is placed on using phonics to spell and the teaching of spelling rules. We use the No Nonsense Spelling scheme to provide a comprehensive progression in the teaching of spelling. Additional support in phonics and spelling for highlighted children is provided through the Sound Discovery scheme.

Alongside decoding and word reading skills, children will be taught the skills of comprehension to gain a deeper understanding of what they are reading.

We aim to instil a love of reading from a young age and promote reading for pleasure throughout the school, we endeavour to encourage all children to read and appreciate a wide range of our literary heritage. We emphasise the importance of story time and children are read to daily. Throughout the year we hold events to promote reading for pleasure e.g., World Book Day, Stories around the Christmas tree, Poetry slams and Winter and Summer reading challenges. We monitor and celebrate frequency of reading though Reading Record rewards.

The school library is often restocked with new and exciting books and offers a comfortable space for children to read and choose books. Each class visits the library weekly and children are encouraged to take books home to enjoy with their families. Each class will also visit our local St George’s library throughout the year. From Year 2 upwards the children have their own library card to borrow the books that they choose. We continue to develop our relationship with the local library by inviting them for special reading assemblies during the year.

Families are actively encouraged to take part in children’s reading development and are expected to read with their children at home. Teachers and families will communicate through the reading record book to support children’s reading. All children have access to Bug Club so that they can access more books online. Families will have opportunities to learn strategies to support their children in decoding in comprehension skills throughout their school career.