Reading - Ready Steady Read Together

At Crowton Christ Church C.E. Primary School, we believe that the teaching of reading is integral to a child’s understanding and appreciation of the world around them; a platform that allows our children to see beyond what they know, share in cultural experiences and develop the vocabulary they need to effectively express themselves.

Our curriculum follows the aims of the National Curriculum for English 2014 to enable all children to:

• Read easily, fluently and with good understanding.

• Develop the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information.

• Acquire a wide vocabulary, an understanding of grammar and knowledge of linguistic conventions for reading, writing and spoken language.

• Appreciate our rich and varied literary heritage.

• Write clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences.

• Use discussion in order to learn; they should be able to elaborate and explain clearly their understanding and ideas.

• Are competent in the arts of speaking and listening, making formal presentations, demonstrating to others and participating in debate.

Our reading curriculum strives to foster a lifelong love of reading. We cultivate the behaviours that they will need to be discerning readers as they read frequently and widely using self-regulation strategies and discuss what they read. This curriculum is delivered through synthetic phonics, a linked approach to shared and guided reading, home reading, reading across the curriculum, regular opportunities for independent reading and hearing quality texts read aloud every day. All of these are essential components as they offer the range of opportunities needed to develop fluent, enthusiastic and critical readers.

It is important that children are motivated to read at home regularly; when their reading opportunities increase, so does their fluency and stamina which in turn increases their enjoyment of reading. Therefore, the link between children’s motivation to read and reading for pleasure is reciprocal. We know that reading pleasure is beneficial not only for not only reading outcomes, but for wider learning enjoyment and mental wellbeing. Thus, we work hard to foster a love of independent reading and build communities of engaged readers. We understand the significance of parents and carers in supporting their children to develop both word reading and comprehension skills, so we endeavour to build a home-school partnership which enables parents and carers to have the confidence to support their children with reading at home. Reading is at the very heart of our curriculum.

We are committed to promoting a love for reading and not only giving children opportunities to read in English lessons, but in the wider curriculum too.