At The Avenue Primary School, we value Reading as an essential life skill that empowers children to achieve their full potential. We have high expectations of our children as readers and our aims are:
- To teach every child to become a fluent and confident reader
- To give children the reading skills necessary to enable their learning in all subjects
- That each child grows to enjoy reading, in order that they become lifelong readers
We deliver a tailor-made curriculum, based on Government recommendations, which ensures breadth of coverage, consistency and progression and takes a balanced and creative approach, combining the systematic teaching of Phonics, a focus on reading for meaning and enjoyment, and the development and understanding of a rich vocabulary. Levels of challenge and reading progress are carefully monitored throughout school to ensure that all children make the best possible progress of which they are capable.
Early Years Foundation Stage: Nursery and Reception
In EYFS, children are encouraged to foster a love of reading through the sharing of quality texts during shared reading and through planned learning contexts. From Nursery, children are encouraged to enjoy and take picture books home to share with parents. From Reception, children are taught reading through the delivery of daily Phonics using the Sounds-Write scheme of learning. They move onto reading books (starting with Pink band) and start reading simple sentences. The reading books that Reception children take home are closely matched to their Phonics learning in class. There is a vibrant reading culture in EYFS with inviting reading areas for children to explore exciting worlds through different literature.
Key Stage 1
In Key Stage 1, children are taught reading through the delivery of daily Phonics using the Sounds-Write scheme of learning which offers a very highly structured, multi-sensory approach to the teaching of reading, spelling and writing.
In Year 1, small group guided reading sessions are taught daily that focus on the introduction of comprehension skills and consolidation of phonics learning. From Year 2 children are taught Reading Comprehension through discreet daily whole class reading sessions, led by the teacher, four times per week. All pupils in KS1 will read with an adult at least once each week.
The vibrant reading culture continues into KS1 with comfortable reading areas in all classrooms that encourage children to independently explore fiction, non-fiction and poetry books. Each half term we also celebrate the literature of a given author.
Key Stage 2
Whole Class Guided Reading
Throughout Key Stage 2, children take part in four whole class Guided Reading sessions each week based on a wide variety of carefully-chosen stimuli, including high-quality texts, picture books, images, poetry, film, lyrics, newspaper articles, advertisements, and information texts. Sessions, which last around 30 minutes each, focus on looking at texts more closely, exploring vocabulary and authorial intent, developing inference, prediction and summary skills, and answering a variety of questions.
Shared Reading Aims
All pupils in KS2 will read with an adult in school at least once each half term. Daily opportunities are provided for all children to practice reading and be heard reading aloud in lessons – using paired, echo or choral reading – and all children are encouraged to read widely and foster a love of reading through our many school initiatives.
Pupils deemed to require extra support read with an adult in school at least once per week (in addition to taught discrete reading sessions). The key focus of any 1:1 reading in school is developing fluency and adults use a range of strategies to support the development of this.
Home Reading
As well as reading in class with the teacher, we expect your child to read at home. This forms part of our Home School Agreement. As a school, we expect that ALL children should ‘Strive for Five’ aiming to read at least five times a week at home.
What will your child bring home?
All children will bring home a reading for pleasure book, this may be fiction or non-fiction. It may require an adult to read it to/with them. We will be keeping a record of the books taken home and if they are not returned, charges for lost books will be issued.
When children begin our systematic synthetic phonics programme, Sounds-Write, they will bring home a decodable book. Most children read decodable books during Reception and Key Stage 1. Your child’s teacher will decide when they no longer need to read decodable books and can move onto our banded books. Children from Reception, Key Stage 1 and Year 3 will be expected to read their book three times before they change it. This is to develop their ability to read with fluency and expression. Children in Year 3 will continue with this approach until they are reading fluently or have moved onto white banded books.
As well as reading their school books, it would be fantastic if they can add to their reading by:
- Reading a library book
- Reading one of their own books
- Reading leaflets from days out/holidays
- Reading maps
- Reading cookery books
- Reading on an iPad, Kindle, laptop, etc
- Reading shopping lists, cereal boxes, food ingredients
- Any other reading material they have/you can think of
What do you need to do?
- Read with your child AT LEAST FIVE TIMES A WEEK, even if it’s just one page, paragraph, etc. This can include some independent reading.
- Try to aim for at least 5 minutes.
- Give details, in their reading diary, of what they have read (no matter what they’ve read), and either make a comment or initial to show you’ve listened to them. In Reception and Year 1 we encourage you prioritise the decodable reading book as this is vital for their reading development).
- Return your child’s reading diary to school EVERY day.
What does your child need to do?
- Read AT LEAST FIVE TIMES A WEEK.
- Hand their reading record in EVERY day
- Change their home reading book on the days their teacher has told them to.
- Read other material – not just school books.
What will class teachers/support staff do?
- We will read aloud to our class, EVERY day.
- We will discuss books and authors we are familiar with, but also expose them to ones they might not have discovered otherwise.
- We shall provide your child with plenty of opportunities to read for pleasure, and will make sure they know how to select books from our school library.
- We will set time aside to recommend books, by discussing them and writing book reviews.
- We will make sure your child knows which days to change their home reading book and will remind them to do so.
- We will check they have read five times every week.
NOW FOR THE REWARDS!
Every Friday, the children who read at least FIVE times that week will receive a ‘Strive for Five’ Dojo – 5 dojos. Every half term, these children will be put into a prize draw and a child will be chosen at random from each year, who will be able to choose a book as a prize.
Reading certificates will be given for 50 reads and each 50 after that. All children will take part in a half termly ‘Book Box Assembly’ where they will be introduced to new and exciting books.
Each half term, the class with the most reads will receive a £20 voucher to spend on books for their classroom reading area.
Ideas for reading
We are often asked for recommendations of books that children could purchase to read at home, so we have created suggested reads lists for children in years 3, 4, 5 and 6.
| Document | Download |
| Year 3 Suggested Reads List | Download |
| Year 4 Suggested Reads List | Download |
| Year 5 Suggested Reads List | Download |
| Year 6 Suggested Reads List | Download |
Organisation of reading books
EYFS & KS1
EYFS and KS1 reading books are carefully matched against each Sounds-Write unit of learning. Children read books including sounds that have recently been taught in their Phonics sessions. Books children take home include those from publishers Sounds-Write, Dandelion, Oxford Reading Tree, Rigby Star, Project X, Collins Big Cat and Songbird, amongst many others that teachers have deemed appropriately matched.
KS2
KS2 reading books consist of scheme books (including Oxford Reading Tree, Rigby Star, Project X and Navigation Non-fiction) as well as high-quality children’s books by a wide range of authors. Books are banded into colours around the theme of the book – for example Crime, Adventure, Graphic Novels.
We encourage the children to review the book they are selecting and decide if they feel it is suitable for them. Staff in school will support these choices where necessary. All children are encouraged to bring home a reading for pleasure book, this might be a picture book, non-fiction book or poetry. Some of the content might be hard to read, so we would encourage you to read this with your child.
At times in Key Stage 2, children may also be benchmarked: this is a system to check not only their ability to decode and comprehend texts, but also to highlight any areas that children may need to work on before moving on. Those who are not making expected progress will be carefully monitored and may receive additional intervention (as deemed appropriate by the class teacher).
Sharing and Celebrating Reading
Throughout school, teachers share their enjoyment of reading, as well as explicitly modelling the skills required to be a successful reader. All children are encouraged to read widely, and celebrate and foster a love of reading through author workshops, library visits, displays and celebration days such as World Book Day and World Poetry Day.
| Reading Documents | View |
| EYFS – English Curriculum | Download |
| Year 1 – Reading Curriculum | Download |
| Year 2 – Reading Curriculum | Download |
| Year 3 – Reading Curriculum | Download |
| Year 4 – Reading Curriculum | Download |
| Year 5 – Reading Curriculum | Download |
| Year 6 – Reading Curriculum | Download |
Reading Groups
Drake The Bookshop in Stockton have a number book groups where the children will be encouraged to read and the discuss what they have read.
They have also got a reading podcast, where they speak to authors and discuss new releases. If this is of interest, this can be accessed via the following link.
