Reading

Our Intent

In order for our children to become well-rounded, articulate, curious, creative, compassionate individuals - who can think critically about a broad range of topics and issues - we strongly believe that reading is paramount. Therefore, we are absolutely determined that every one of our pupils learns to read and so we continually strive to encourage a lifelong love for the written word through our rich, diverse curriculum. 

A language rich environment enables pupils to access new and challenging vocabulary on a daily basis and so every class has a reading area with a wide selection of books, specifically suited to their age group. Our well resourced library area has a huge range of new and classic texts to appeal to all ages and interests and children are encouraged to visit the library, borrow books and share recommendations. We also have a Reading Challenge for each year group as a way to help families remember / discover new family favourites. (Information for each is attached below and inside your child's Reading Record).

Each classroom has a reading area with soft furnishing and a variety of fiction and non-fiction books.

 

Books For Home

Children from Early Years upwards bring home both a reading book suitable for their reading ability from our phonic's scheme in addition to a book designed specifically for pleasure (for parents to read aloud to them). We encourage parents to record comments in their child’s Reading Record so that teachers and parents can share information about their child’s progress in reading. Parents are encouraged to read with their child daily and information is given on how to support their child reading at parent evenings, information inside Reading Records and attached at the bottom of this page.                                             

Once children have progressed from phonic specific books, they will go onto coloured book bands before reaching the free reading stage (ideally expected by the end of Year 4). Children can select books to take home, from well-resourced, age-appropriate books in the classroom or the main library (which has over 2000 fiction books and 2000 non-fiction books!)

No matter their age, we still encourage all readers to share a book at home with their grown-ups. We believe that this not only helps to develop inferential skills, but also supports a lifelong love of reading and important mental health benefits. 

 

Reading In School 

To promote a love of reading, there are several opportunities throughout the week where we encourage children to read independently / buddy read and share recommendations with one another. In addition to our well stocked class libraries, the children love to go onto Epic Read! on the computers. We also love to share highly engaging texts as often as possible with our pupils - whether it is part of a lesson or at the end of the day specifically for pleasure. Each of our writing units are centred around high-quality texts which change regularly throughout each term and information about these are available on your children's class pages. We also have a 'Poet of the Week' where members of each class are tasked to find and read aloud a poem which they love. 

In addition to the National Curriculum objectives, we teach the main comprehension skills (which we denote as VIPERS to help the children become familar with them). There is more information about each skill attached at the bottom of the page. 

We also teach reading in other ways depending upon your child's year group: 

EYFS: 

In addition to their daily phonics, the children are heard reading aloud in a small group session (or on a one-to-one basis) at least once a week. 

To help with phonics the link below will allow you to listen to how the sounds are pronounced under the ‘Say the Sounds’ section.

http://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/for-home/phonics-made-easy

KS1:

In addition to their daily phonics / support for spelling lessons, the children are heard reading aloud in a small group session twice a week: once for their decoding and intonation and the second time focuses upon their questioning and understanding of the book. 

Year 3&4:

In addition to our weekly comprehension sessions, the children enjoy a whole class guided reading session once a week centred around a lengthier chapter book, non-fiction text or pieces of poetry. Us teachers read aloud the texts so that everyone can enjoy the books before being set to complete a range of tasks. We aim to include drama activities at least once a term.

Children who are on book colours will be reading with their teacher regulalrly in order for in to be reviewed at least once per term. We would hope most children would reach at least Dark Blue books by the end of Year 3 and then gain 'Free Reader' status by the end of Year 4. 

Every child in in the Juniors are encouraged to take out books from our very well-stocked school library. If your child is not yet a free reader, these books are designed to be mainly read by an experienced read to your child. 

Year 5&6 

Our children enjoy a whole class guided reading session once a week which centres around a lengthier chapter book, non-fiction text or pieces of poetry. Us teachers read aloud the texts so that every child can enjoy the books before being set to complete a range of tasks. We aim to include drama activities at least once a term. 

We also have a separate, explicit comprehension session once a week where the children apply their VIPERS skills to a range of extracts. 

We have small group reading sessions / teachers will hear one-to-one readers where appropriate. 

Every child in in the Juniors are encouraged to take out books from our very well-stocked school library. If your child is not yet a free reader, these books are designed to be mainly read by an experienced read to your child. 

 

A fantastic website to discover new books (tailored to your child's age) is https://www.lovereading4kids.co.uk/browse-by-age 

                                                                             Cheshire Libraries 

Cheshire West has launched a new eBooks, audio downloads, eMagazines, eNewspapers and eResources service all free of charge. We’d love as many of children to take advantage of this fantastic new service as soon as possible. The apps are called Borrow Box and Libby (more information overleaf).

If you have not already, please can you apply for a library card by copying the URL below or by going into your nearest library. 

https://cheslive.koha-ptfs.co.uk/cgi-bin/koha/opac-memberentry.pl

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