Reading

One of our core principles is for all children to:

'Attain the highest possible academic standards through learning with confidence, a positive mind-set and strong self-belief.'

The most important area of the curriculum for children to succeed at is reading. 

We want every single child to learn to love to read, because successful readers do well at school. We want them to read accurately, fluently and with good understanding, so that  ultimately they discover a love of reading that will last them a lifetime. 

We want all children to enjoy finding interesting facts from information books and also have favourite stories and authors. 

From the very beginning, we teach every child to be a successful reader beginning with a systematic approach to the teaching of phonics using the ReadWriteInc programme. As soon as children have settled into Reception, in the first few weeks, we begin a daily dedicated lesson, and learn all the phonemes in the English language. There are many to learn, but it is amazing how quickly children can learn them all if they are well-taught. Then the children will be taught how to segment words into phonemes (break words up into  sounds) and blend phonemes together (put sounds together into words). Once this is mastered, they are ready to learn to read.

For more information, go to:

Read Write Inc. literacy programmes for 4-11 year-olds (oup.com) 

When you child starts school, we will hold an early reading workshop to talk about how we teach phonics and how you can help your child at home. This will ensure your child has the best possible start to their reading journey.

Ten top tips from Read Write Inc: 

Click here to read a letter from Read, Write, Inc expert Ruth Miskin

1. Saying sounds correctly This is really important when you are helping your child to learn the sounds. Just remember not to add an uh to the end of the consonant sounds – so say mmm not muh, ll not luh, etc. because then it’s easier to blend the sounds together to make words.  There are videos showing you how to say the sounds correctly on the Read Write Inc website.

 2. Linking sounds to letters Encourage your child to make a link between the sound and the written letter shape. Start with the sounds in your child’s name and then look out for them in signs, eg the sound m in McDonalds.

 3. Sounds represented by more than one letter Some sounds are represented by more than one letter such as sh in ship, ch in chat, th in thin, qu in quick and ng in sing. When you’re out and about point out examples of these to your child too. You might see them in posters, signs, or leaflets.

 4. Practise, practise, practise Build up a knowledge of the letters and sounds quite quickly with your child and keep practising so that it becomes automatic. Keep reminding ‘Do you remember when we were talking about the sound ch...?’, or ‘Oh look! There’s a big t (sound) on that poster!’.

 5. Putting sounds together to read simple words Say the sounds c-a-t to read cat, sh-o-p to read shop and s-t-r-ee-t to read street. If your child gets stuck and is struggling to blend the sounds, say the sounds yourself, quickly, until your child can hear the word.  Beginner readers will need to sound out every word at first but will later learn to recognise whole words.

 6. Tricky words Some everyday words in English have tricky spellings and can’t be read by blending. Imagine trying to read the word said or does by blending each letter! These are sometimes called high frequency tricky words, or Red words. These words just have to be learned by sight.

7. Reading books to read at home Each week pupils will bring home a reading book for them to read. Pupils will need to sound out the words (we call this 'Fred Talk') to start with. Then they will progress onto silently sounding out in their head (we call this 'Fred in their head').  After your child has read a page, it helps if you can read it aloud again, so that they hear, understand and enjoy the story. The books are carefully matched to the sounds your child knows so they should be able to read fairly fluently.

8. Using pictures Illustrations are great to look at and talk about, but don’t encourage your child to use pictures to guess the words that they don’t already know; instead help them to work out the word by looking at the letters.

9. Handwriting Teach your child how to write the letters as they bring home their sounds to learn. Check they have a good and comfortable table pencil grip. Please check in school if you are not sure about this as it is very important to get this right from the start.

10. Read and enjoy lots and lots of great books! Make storytime a special time for both of you, ideally, make it part of a good bedtime routine.

If you only take one tip, make it Tip 10 so your child grows up loving stories, reading and your special time together. 

Becoming an even better reader...

Once children are accurate and fluent readers, we help them to develop their understanding of a range of texts through BOOK CLUB, which begins for most children in Year 2. 

In Year 2 during the summer term pupils start book club. Book club involves pupils studying a short text for a week. Each day a specific reading skill is taught.

Day 1 involves reading for enjoyment and helping pupils to visualise and become familiar with the text.  Day 2 is focused on vocabulary and unpicking unfamiliar words. Day 3 focuses on retrieval and inference questions to gain a more in-depth understanding. Day 4 involves sequencing the text, fact and opinion questions and summarising areas of the text. Throughout the week pupils contribute their opinions and deeper thoughts about the text. Day 5 is a poetry focus pupils enjoy listening to a variety of poems. Each half term classes learn a poem off by heart, which is then performed to the rest of the school.

Choosing the best books

Our school library is packed full of high quality texts. Each day pupils have twenty minutes to enjoy reading for pleasure. This gives them time to discover whole new worlds, have adventures, meet new characters, visit new places and explore new ideas. Importantly, this also develops children's ability to empathise and understand strong emotions and it gives them an insight into the world and the views of others.

Research shows that reading for pleasure can be directly linked to children’s success throughout their time at school and even into adulthood. Good readers are more successful at school.

After finishing their chosen book, the children complete an on-line quiz on  Accelerated Reader to check their understanding and make sure they are reading books which are at the right level for them.  The results of the quiz provides the teacher with a wealth of information about the comprehension questions the children are finding more tricky, which then informs their teaching during book club. 

Teachers track pupils accelerated reader book quiz scores and pupils are rewarded for their efforts. Rewards include: use of school kindles, receiving personalised bookmarks and unlocking the special book box.

Story times in class are a must!

As well as daily Book Club, each class also enjoys a daily story time. This is where pupils can sit back, listen and enjoy great books to build their imagination.  As pupils progress through school, they hear about 80 fantastic books that we feel are ‘essential reads’  that are unmissable.

The children build up a store of wide-ranging texts, both modern literature and classics, creating a living library inside their minds, feeding their imagination. It is a wonderful time in class when we share in the love of a great book. 

Reading at home

There is a wealth of research which shows that learning to read is directly linked to children’s success at school and beyond. It also shows that those who read regularly and for longer dramatically increase the number of words they are introduced to which impacts on their success across the whole curriculum.

We believe that the relationship between school reading and home reading is vital. It is never too early to start sharing books with your child. Learning to read is about listening and understanding as well as working out print. When children hear stories, they are exposed to a rich and wide vocabulary. This helps them build their own vocabulary and improve their understanding when they listen, which is vital as they start to read.