Reading
Here at Harmans Water Primary School, our aim is to develop a life-long love and passion for reading, and for children to leave here as confident readers. The teaching of reading begins as soon as children enter our school in EYFS (please see the separate page about phonics). Our reading aims are as follows:
- Develop enquiry skills through reading for different purposes.
- Develop resilience when learning to decode, retrieve and infer texts.
- Develop a range of reading strategies in addition to decoding to allow children to access a range of literature.
- Inspire children to read a wide variety of authors through the use of high quality texts.
- Develop an appreciation for reading, both inside and outside of school.
- Engage all children across the school through an exciting reading curriculum.
- Gain the confidence to perform a range of texts.
- Enable children to become passionate about reading, emphasised through events like World Book Day.
Please see below our progression of the teaching of reading throughout the school and the progression of the key concepts.
Reading for Pleasure
In addition to the teaching of reading, we ensure we make time for children to foster their love of reading too. Each class holds a weekly Book Club session, where favourite books are discussed, new books are explored and other reading-related activities occur, depending on what the class choose.
We also have a read aloud spine, where the teachers read these books in their daily story time. These books have been selected as high quality texts and enables us to expose the children to a range of authors by the time they leave our school in Year 6.
Each year group has a reading challenge list. These are high quality books that we recommend each year the children read in their own time, with the option to access these books in school too. These range from graphic novels to poetry and non-fiction.
As well as the bookcase and/or book corner in every classroom, the children have a weekly visit to our library. We have a newly designed Reading Meadow that children can access at lunchtimes and when teachers decide to use it with their class.
We celebrate and take part in reading events each year, like World Book Day, to ensure we prioritise the importance of developing a love for reading.
