We have always recognised the incredibly important role that reading plays in our children’s lives. We pride ourselves on creating a reading culture in the school in which reading is celebrated and valued. We follow ‘Letters and Sounds’ for our daily phonics sessions and this complements the reading books we use in school.

 

Reading is central to our curriculum. We have daily class story times, weekly guided reading sessions and regular independent reading time. Children are encouraged to find out about current topics or interests through reading and we ensure that they always have a range of high quality texts available to them.

 

Every class has access to books in their classroom, either in book corners or reading baskets, and children are encouraged to share these books with each other or with an adult. In addition to this, once a week every child is given time to choose a library book from our well stocked school library. These books go home to be enjoyed by the whole family.

 

Children’s reading skills are developed through focused guided reading sessions with the teacher and complemented through a read-aloud curriculum with each year group having a set of ‘core stories’ which they read throughout the year.

 

Every pupil takes home a reading book which is selected from our banded reading books. We have a range of books available, including those from The Oxford Reading Tree (click here for reading tips from Oxford Reading Tree), Collins Big Cat Phonics and Bug Club. The pupils’ access to the online ‘Bug Club’ also allows them to read appropriate banded books online at home, selected for them by their class teacher.