English has a pre-eminent place in education and in society. A high-quality education in English will teach pupils to speak and write fluently so that they can communicate their ideas and emotions to others, and through their reading and listening, others can communicate with them. Through reading in particular, pupils have a chance to develop culturally, emotionally, intellectually, socially and spiritually. Literature, especially, plays a key role in such development. Reading also enables pupils both to acquire knowledge and to build on what they already know. All the skills of language are essential to participating fully as a member of society; pupils who do not learn to speak, read and write fluently and confidently are effectively disenfranchised.
(National Curriculum, DfE)
We recognise that reading is fundamental in supporting our pupils to become critical thinkers, learners and inquisitive citizens. We fully comprehend the power of reading and how it feeds the imagination and opens up a world of wonder. We strive to enable all of our pupils to become fully absorbed in books and love and have a healthy habit of reading
Reading is promoted as an enjoyable activity and a life skill throughout Abbey View Primary Academy.
Our aims are to enable children to:
- Develop positive attitudes towards reading so that it is a pleasurable and meaningful activity
- Read and respond to a variety of texts whilst gaining increased level of fluency, accuracy, independence and understanding
- Use reading skills as an integral part of learning across the curriculum
Children have a wealth of reading opportunities during the course of the school day, in which to develop and extend their skills, confidence and interest. These include:
- Whole class reading using a shared fiction or non fiction text
- Daily/weekly reading with an adult and/or regular independent reading – teachers monitor reading and discuss progress with individual pupils and parents on a regular basis. Where pupils are working below age appropriate objectives they will be identified for additional intervention
- Daily story-time in each year group.
- Practising and extending reading across the curriculum
- Reading from the interactive whiteboard in lessons
- Identifying letters and words in the environment
- Selecting their own choice of texts during library time
- Answering comprehension questions about a text they have listened to or read themselves
- Identifying new vocabulary and using dictionaries to help them discover its meaning
- Parents are encouraged to read to their children at home and to hear their children read daily. Home reading books are given to children for practising reading with their families. For our earlier readers these are decodable books from the Oxford University Press in line with our phonics programme Essential Letters and Sounds. For more fluent readers we send home colour banded reading books largely from the Oxford Reading Tree scheme.
A love of reading is also promoted to both children and parents via a number of events planned over the school year such as bedtime stories, visiting authors and book swaps. The school library and class library are regularly reviewed and re-stocked to ensure age appropriate and engaging texts are available for the children.
