Reading

Intent

Reading lies at the heart of the curriculum at Eaton Valley. We are dedicated to enabling our pupils to become lifelong readers and we believe reading is key for academic success.

At the heart of our strategy, is our drive to foster a love of reading, enriching children’s learning through carefully designed teaching activities that utilise imaginative stories and thought-provoking texts.

Reading is a skill that enables children to develop their learning across the wider curriculum and lays the foundations for success in future lines of study and employment. We recognise the importance of taking a consistent approach to the teaching of reading in order to close any gaps and to target the highest possible number of children attaining the expected standard or higher.

We have high expectations of all children and we encourage children to challenge themselves, persevere and pursue success, always ‘reaching for the stars’ and having ‘pride in all we do’. Our Reading closely links to our Phonics program.

As a school we will develop strong links between home and school reading to ensure children become lifelong readers and families are reading together.

Reading encourages Drama skills and these will be embedded into curriculum lessons so all children take part in a variety of dramatic techniques to aid their reading and writing skills.

Implementation

Teaching Reading, at Eaton Valley, takes place throughout the Curriculum where children are encouraged to apply the skills they have been taught in the focused Reading Lessons. Teaching in these sessions, across the school, focusses on developing pupils’ competence in both word reading and comprehension as outlined in the National Curriculum Programmes of Study for Reading.

Skilled word reading involves both the speedy working out of the pronunciation of unfamiliar printed words (decoding) and the speedy recognition of familiar printed words. For this Phonics element, we follow the Read Write Inc approach. Underpinning both is the understanding that the letters on the page represent the sounds in spoken words.

 

 

Impact

By the time children leave Eaton Valley, they are competent readers who can recommend books to their peers, have a thirst for reading a range of genres including poetry, and participate in discussions about books, including evaluating an author’s use of language and the impact this can have on the reader. They can also read books to enhance their knowledge and understanding of all subjects in the curriculum, and communicate their research to a wider audience.

They will use their knowledge of books to become confident in expressing themselves and apply these skills in a variety of year group productions.