Reading

"I do believe something magical can happen when you read a good book!" 

J.K. Rowling.

Subject Leader: Mrs Bedford (Mrs Bayliss - Phonics & Early Reading)

Subject Governor: Janet Davies

Reading Curriculum Intent      

At Pinders Primary School, we believe reading to be the heart of our curriculum, with high-quality texts and authors running through the veins of our teaching and learning. We believe that nurturing a love for reading is key, so we ensure that our environment is carefully and creatively designed to bring books and stories to life. Our school environment has been immersed in books, from the indoor library, classrooms, corridor reading areas to the outdoor community library… books are everywhere! Reading has a pivotal place in education; skills of language are essential to participating fully as a member of society. Here at Pinders, learning of the English language and expanding on vocabulary is extremely pertinent as many of our learners (some of which are new to the country) are learning English as an additional language.  In order to develop these skills, the acquisition of reading fluency and understanding is encouraged throughout all subjects. As well as integrating reading throughout the wider curriculum, reading is taught discretely as a subject - through the exploration of engaging texts and securing comprehension skills, all while fostering a love for reading. 

It is our intent to provide a high-quality education with reading embedded throughout all elements of learning; this will enable pupils to read fluently and articulate their ideas and emotions effectively. The development of secure reading skills, along with a love for reading is offered from the very start of a child’s journey here with us. Early reading is taught through the teaching and learning of phonics right from the beginning of Nursery, until children are competent and independent readers. It is our intention for all pupils to leave Pinders Primary as confident and fluent readers, who are well equipped to embark upon their journey in life.  

Aims in Teaching Reading at Pinders Primary School:

We aim:

• To foster a love for reading in all pupils. 
• To allow all pupils to become confident, fluent readers with a deep understanding of what they have read through the use of good prosody.
• To teach all pupils the reading skills they need to gain and embed knowledge across the curriculum. 

How is the content/theme chosen?

Whenever possible, we teach through a themed approach, to enable children to embed learning and make connections, which leads to a greater depth of understanding within the subject. Read and Respond texts have been carefully selected to cover a range of different themes and topics. The content is therefore chosen to make effective links with key themes, reflect expectations in the National Curriculum Programmes of Study and Early Years Foundation Stage Framework, which will engage and inspire our children. 

Our Statutory National Curriculum Programme for Reading

How is Reading taught?

In order to develop an effective reading curriculum, we have ensured that the various strands (Read and Respond, Cracking Comprehension, Phonics and Spelling, daily reading with a teacher etc.) respond to crucial elements of educational research and theory behind reading development.

We understand that a skills model is very important because by teaching a sequence of skills, separately defined in a logical and sequential order, improves comprehension of texts. Certain elements of our curriculum offer this vital opportunity to our children to allow them to understand the meaning of words by building on sounds and letters and whole words so that they can be related to other words in a sentence. However, other elements of our reading curriculum follow a psycholinguistic model. This is where we encourage and support children in predicting the meaning of words and texts based upon their prior knowledge and experience. We understand that often children need to build upon their own store of information about how language works in order to make sense out of what they are reading and to get meaning. We believe strongly in offering children as many experiences as possible to build on and develop their existing stores of information through rich reading opportunities in school.

We don’t teach these skills in isolation- each part of our reading curriculum nourishes another to provide a rich and broad reading life for all of our children.

How do we ensure progression of knowledge and skills?

At Pinders Primary School, we have a comprehensive progression document of reading skills which is used for planning, to ensure there is a build up of skills and knowledge across school. 

Within these documents, there are also opportunities for differentiation, in order to meet the needs of all learners. 

Becoming a Reader

When children are learning about reading through a discrete session they are explicitly told that today they are going to be 'a reader'. They are then reminded of the key skills that they will learn, use and develop within reading lessons. 

In reading lessons, these are...

As readers, we are learning to:

· Gain a love of reading.

· Become fluent and confident in our reading skills.

· Be able to unpick and understand unfamiliar vocabulary.

· Develop the knowledge and skills we need to flourish in the wider world.

Teaching Reading in EYFS

Reading and British Values 

Reading Across the Curriculum

At Pinders Primary School, we aim to foster a love of reading and a love of books across the whole primary curriculum. When creating our new 3D curriculum, each subject leader made it a priority to incorporate good quality books into every topic and these are used as a stimulus to introducing the new topic. Below is a selection of some of the books we use to introduce our new topics in Art, RE, PSHE, Music, Science, DT, French, Geography and History.

How do we develop cultural capital in Reading?

Culture capital is the accumulation of knowledge, behaviours and skills that a child can draw upon and which demonstrates their cultural awareness, knowledge and competence; it is one of the key ingredients a pupil will draw upon to be successful in society, their career and the world of work.

As reading is the thread that feeds through our bespoke curriculum, children study from a wide range of text that explore different themes. 

Significant People in Reading- Authors

Our curriculum has been carefully designed to provide our pupils with the opportunity to learn about great authors, both in the past and present. We strive to offer a wide range of learning experiences linked to authors and the books they've written. Children can be creatures of habit. Much like how they can watch the same movie over and over, some children will stick to one author or genre of book that they’ve fallen in love with. But does it matter if they're always reading the same type of book? Well, while a love of reading of any sort is to be nurtured at Pinders Primary school, we know that when a child only reads the same author or type of book, their growth and the benefits they gain may not be as broad if they were to explore more types of books. We know that encouraging them to open up to reading other genres by other authors can be a big advantage for them in the long term.

What does Reading look like at Pinders Primary?

Curriculum Documentation

Reading Research Links

Parent Support/Links