Mr Pemmberton, Reading subject lead

“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, you more places you will go.” –Dr. Seuss

“Books are a uniquely portable magic.” -Stephen King

“Reading should not be presented to children as a chore or duty. It should be offered to them as a precious gift.” -Kate DiCamillo

“You know you have read a good book when you turn the last page and feel a little as if you have lost a friend.” -Paul Sweeney

At Kingsbridge 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 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. Furthermore, we know that reading for pleasure is beneficial not only towards 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.

We have a very well-resourced library which is continually updated through direct book purchasing and our Service Level Agreement with Devon School’s Library Service. This provides the resources for our children to access our Accelerated Reader learning programme. Each classroom has an inviting, rich reading area with our main aim being to foster a love of reading and to develop each pupils’ ability, understanding and enjoyment as a reader.

Phonics is taught daily using the “Read, Write, Inc.” programme from Foundation Stage to the end of Year 2. Where necessary, 1 to 1 tutoring based on “Read, Write Inc.” is delivered to individual pupils to support their reading development. From Foundation Stage through Key Stage 1, each child is given a reading diary which parents, staff and children can use to record progress of their reading. Parents are encouraged to listen to their child read and share books regularly and to record this in their child’s reading diary. Please see below for more information on Read, Write Inc.

The majority of pupils in Key Stage 2 can choose reading books from the library as determined by their progress within the Accelerated Reader scheme. Whole class reading comprehension lessons are based on the VIPERS system developed by The Literacy Shed. Children are taught the key skills of retrieving information, inference, prediction, summarising and explaining using a wide range of texts including fiction, non-fiction and poetry. An intervention programme based on “Fresh Start” from Read, Write, Inc. is delivered to small groups of pupils to support decoding and comprehension in Key Stage 2. Parents can monitor and support their child’s reading using the Home Connect portal linked to Accelerated Reader.

We value the importance that you as parents have in the development of your child’s enjoyment of reading, and we hope that you will play an active part in sharing books with your child as they journey throughout school.