Reading

Our Vision for Reading

Reading unlocks everything. Through reading in particular, our children have a chance to develop culturally, emotionally, intellectually, socially and spiritually. We aim to develop a love of reading so that all are children become passionate fluent readers, can acquire knowledge and build on what they already know so that they can participate fully as an informed, active member of society.

The reading curriculum will allow to children to encounter a wide range of quality literature through ambitious text choices that both reflect our diverse community and our curriculum and transport pupils to new cultures, worlds and possibilities. There is an emphasis on ‘book talk’ to develop their love of literature, building communities of readers in school and across the school community to foster a reading for pleasure culture.

Reading is embedded within and connected to all areas of the curriculum so that children will 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.

Whole-Class Reading

Whole-Class Reading sessions support pupils to learn a broad range of new, challenging vocabulary, develop fluency, accuracy and automaticity; becoming skilled readers who are empowered by a broad vocabulary and read with meaning and enjoyment. All children from year 1 to year 6 engage in a form of whole-class reading. We take an approach to whole-class reading that is grounded in proven research. Take a look below:

Whole Class Reading Framework

Progression

Pupils begin their journey in early reading, focussing on decoding and developing reading fluency. Little Wandle is the phonics scheme used by the school. (see phonics section of the website). Children learn increasingly sophisticated skills from Early Years to Year 6 and are exposed to comprehension tasks that increase in difficulty. This progression is mapped in the document below.

Reading Progression Map

Progression is also provided by the choice of texts. The selected texts provide increasing challenge as they progress through school, through more complex syntax, more sophisticated vocabulary and deeper themes. See below for Carrington’s reading spines – the selected texts in each year group.

The Carrington Reading Spine

Carrington’s reading spine maps the selected texts that children read throughout school from Early Years to Year 6. The texts have been carefully chosen to meet a specific criteria. The rationale for the Carrington Reading Spine is set out in this document:

Reading Spine Rationale

You can view the reading spine for each year group below. These are regularly reviewed to ensure that they remain relevant and offer the broad, balanced and ambitious curriculum our children deserve.

Book Talk

Each week, pupils engage in an informal ‘Book Talk’ session. Here they have the chance to talk about the books they are reading, share their love of reading with their classmates and talk about their favourite authors and characters. Pupils recommend books to each other and read parts aloud. The sessions use social motivation to foster a ‘reading for pleasure’ culture and turn our classrooms into reading communities. In short, it is a relaxed and informal session for pupils to talk spontaneously about what they’re reading.

These key principles play a central role to the implementation of Book Talk sessions.