St Matthew's ‘So it is with children who learn to read fluently and well: They begin to take flight into whole new worlds as effortlessly as young birds take to the sky.’
William James
Reading 
We are Readers and Bookworms
“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go.”– Dr Seuss
Why should we learn Reading
Reading is at the heart of all children’s learning; it enables children to both communicate with others effectively for a variety of purposes and to examine their own and others’ experiences, feelings and ideas, giving these order and meaning.
At St Matthew's, we believe that literacy, language and communication are key life skills and that developing language skills, opens up a world of wonder and curiosity for all learners. Reading is central to children’s intellectual, emotional and social development; it has an essential role across the curriculum and helps pupils’ learning to be coherent and progressive across it.
How will it help us in later life?
Reading takes you to amazing places emotionally, imaginatively and in reality.
Become the: author, actor, editor, leader, illustrator, poet, storyteller, entertainer, biographer, team player, friend, listener, advocate, web designer, media mogul, influencer, news anchor, You Tuber, legal representative, judge, jury, politician, teacher, expert, professor, medic, financer, sales person, entrepreneur, DJ, retailer, sports commentator, carer, sports person, builder, asset manager…………. The list is endless for communication is essential to every career.
What do we want for our children?
The study of English develops children’s ability to listen, speak, read and write for a wide range of audiences and purposes. It is our desire that through our English curriculum children at St Matthew's develop and maintain a life-long relationship with reading. Reading is power and ignites a love of learning in our children. It enables them to be curious in what they know and learn, and to confident. Reading will aid our children to broaden their horizons and encourage them to take risks.
A culture of reading is embedded within our school. We have an absolute and relentless focus on reading in line with the National Curriculum, 2014, which places reading for pleasure at the heart of the English curriculum. We recognise that developing a love of reading is one of the most effective ways we are able to raise attainment and life choices for our children.
At our school, we support all children to make effective progress in English. Through purposeful models specific to our intent, all children will develop a richer vocabulary, enabling them to articulate themselves clearly and are equipped with the necessary social skills to succeed in life.
Fostering reflective and critical thinking means that all children can enhance their understanding through questioning and are empowered to be information literate. A focus on spoken language and comprehension will strengthen their understanding further and create more independent, civically engaged members of society.
Our reading long term plan is linked to our English long term plan and can be found here.
Intent
At St Matthew's Primary School we believe that reading is an essential life skill and we are committed to enabling our children to become lifelong readers.
At the heart of our strategy is our drive to foster a love of reading, enriching children’s learning through carefully designed teaching activities that utilise imaginative stories and thought provoking texts.
Reading is a skill that enables children to develop their learning across the wider curriculum and lays the foundations for success in future lines of study and employment. We recognise the importance of taking a consistent whole school approach to the teaching of reading in order to close any gaps and to target the highest possible number of children attaining the expected standard or higher.
We have high expectations of all children and we encourage children to challenge themselves, persevere and pursue success, so everyone can flourish in their chosen future.
Implementation
At St Matthew's Primary School we use a synthetic phonics programme called Little Wandle.
More information can be found about this on our phonics curriculum page here.
At St Matthew's all classes follow a structured 5 day approach to reading activities. All sessions are interactive and teachers facilitate speaking and listening opportunities, with children working hard individually. Passive learning is minimised and engagement promoted through regular use of think-pair-share, responses on mini-whiteboards and collaborative tasks.
We have 5 sessions of 'Whole Class Reading' which incorporate vocabulary, text immersion, paired and echo reading and some comprehension activities. More complex questions are modelled and evaluated between wider groups and teachers model how to refine answers to a high standard.
Accelerated Reader sessions are used to further a child's understanding and comprehension. All children in KS2 are assessed using the Star reading assessment and this identifies their reading level and age. Children choose books within their given level and complete an online quiz at the end of each book. This gives children the opportunity to read texts with greater independence and apply their skills when responding to the wide range of domain questions.
At St Matthew's we believe that regular reading at home is an important tool in developing reading skills. Books from Accelerated Reader are used for home-reading to ensure that children experience a wide breadth of reading opportunities across different genres and parents are encouraged to talk about the books with their children.
What does this look like for our children?
Children are exposed to a wide range of high- quality texts which are displayed through our curriculum.
Reading for pleasure is encouraged daily. In addition to phonics sessions, which take place in KS1 and EYFS, pupils are also immersed in reading throughout the school day via a number of different initiatives. Pupils (in all key stages) have a daily ‘story time’ session at the end of the day, where they listen to a text, read to each other and have the chance to share book recommendations.
At St Matthew's, our love for reading is always at the heart of everything we do. We have our own team of ‘librarians’ that look after our class book corners, organise genres and give book recommendations to other children. Our librarians take responsibility for taking care of our libraries and ensuring that all children are confident to choose stories that they will enjoy.
Impact
As we believe that reading is key to all learning, the impact of our reading curriculum goes beyond the result of statutory assessments. Children have the opportunity to enter the wide and varied magical worlds that reading opens up to them. As they develop their own interest in books, a deep love of literature across a range of genres cultures and styles is enhanced.
Through the teaching of systematic phonics and reading enquiry, our aim is for children to become fluent and confident readers who can apply their knowledge and experience to a range of texts through the Key Stage 2 curriculum.
As a Year 6 reader, transitioning into secondary school, we aspire that children are fluent, confident and able readers, who can access a range of texts for pleasure and enjoyment, as well as use their reading skills to unlock learning and all areas of the curriculum. We firmly believe that reading is the key to all learning and so the impact of our reading curriculum goes beyond the results of the statutory assessments.
In addition to this:
- Parents and carers will have a good understanding of how they can support reading at home, and contribute regularly to home-school records.
- The % of pupils working at age related expectations and above age related expectations within each year group will be at least in line with national averages and will match the ambitious targets of individual children.
- There will be no significant gaps in the progress of different groups of pupils (e.g. disadvantaged vs non-disadvantaged)
Inclusion
Adaptive teaching is key to delivering an effective and inclusive curriculum. All pupils' starting points are considered and activities and work is matched to ensure pupils reach their full potential, whilst supporting the child's learning. Adult support, a range of activities, adaptations, equipment and resources can enable children of all abilities to access learning.
Our school will ensure that:
- all children have entitlement to a broad and balanced, enriching curriculum
- all children enjoy an active involvement in English
- all children have opportunities to experience a broad and balanced range of English activities
- all children have opportunities to learn about English from different times and cultures
- all children will be given equal access to the experience of English regardless of their gender, race, disability, medical or other needs
- teachers use a variety of approaches that are matched to the activity and the ability of the children
Supporting your child with reading at home
10 top tips for parents to support children to read - GOV.UK
Research
Research frames our thinking in what we teach and how we deliver it to our children to ensure teaching and learning has maximum impact.
Please see references to the research linked above:
[1] https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/
[4] https://www.teachertoolkit.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Principles-of-Insruction-Rosenshine.pdf
Reading Websites
- Books matched to Age Group The Reader Teacher | Children's Books | Reads, Reviews & Recommendations
Useful links
Book recommendations and excerpts to help children choose what to read next!
Kids' Poems and Stories with Michael Rosen
Author Cressida Cowell Magical Ideas & Stories
Links where you can read, watch, hear and explore children's poems
Suggested reading lists for each year group
