Reading in English
Reading at Heddington
More than any other subject, English – particularly reading – is fundamental to learning, giving children access to the rest of the curriculum. At Heddington, we have created a reading programme which is bespoke to our children with the aim of instilling a genuine love of the written word while being relevant, meaningful and aiding spirituality; we nurture a culture where children are reflective and make connections with their own experiences, providing them with the necessary tools to enjoy, share and discuss their reading in all areas of their learning.
Reading Lessons
From Key Stage 2, children have daily reading lessons where they develop their prosody, fluency and comprehension through shared reading and discussion. Short passages are used from a class read, supplemented by complementing extracts from a wide range of high-quality texts, exposing children to a variety of literary forms and rich vocabulary across genres.
Reading for Pleasure
We want children at Heddington to become lifelong readers. Our aim is to foster a love of reading through introducing and sharing rich and varied texts: each class reads for pleasure every day and children regularly share favourite poems and extracts from books, making recommendations and inspiring others to read what they truly enjoy.
Collins Big Cat Reading Books
Once children have completed our chosen phonics scheme (Little Wandle), they move onto books from the Collins Big Cat, developing fluency and comprehension through to Year 6. These books include fiction, non-fiction and graphic novels, and are rich in vocabulary. The expectation is that children will be reading for at least twenty minutes a day from Year 3 onwards.
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Reading Implementation
Believing that reading is the key to all learning, all children at Heddington will learn to read through consistent teaching, regular monitoring and assessment. In key stage 2, reading is taught as a whole class lesson. Reading is modelled, shared and echoed with a focus on vocabulary, prosody, fluency and comprehension. Teachers read regularly across the curriculum, exposing children to information texts and subject specific vocabulary, in addition to stories, poems and narratives to help embed a love of books and reading.
Please click here to view our whole school reading overview
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Reading Impact
The impact of our reading curriculum will allow children to access all areas of their learning. It is our aspiration that all children at Heddington will become reflective, independent readers who have a deep love of literature across different genres, cultures and styles. We aim for our children to develop an empathy for the characters they encounter and make links to their own lives and behaviours. Furthermore, when children leave Year 6 and transition to secondary school, they will be equipped with the necessary skills and tools to read material in any subject.