Reading

All children are encouraged to:

• Read for pleasure.
• Develop a good knowledge of high quality texts.
• Understand that knowledge is gained by reading.
• To share their reading at home.

As part of our provision at Bildeston and Whatfield Primary School we aim to:

• Encourage and foster strong home school partnerships which enables parents to understand how to enhance skills taught in school.
• Provide a good quality, equitable and diverse reading curriculum.
• Ensure that all children can read fluently, with confidence in any subject.
• Provide reading opportunities across the curriculum.

Individual Reading in Reception and KS1

Reading practice book

This will have been carefully matched to your child’s current phonic knowledge and confidence, and to the tricky words they know.  They should be able to read this to you fluently and independently, only needing to ‘sound out’ (blend) a couple of words with very little help.  This doesn’t mean it’s ‘too easy’ – your child needs to develop fluency and confidence in reading.  Being fluent also allows them space to rehearse reading expressively and think about the meaning of what they have read.  Remember to always give them lots of praise and celebrate every success! If they can’t read a word, read it to them. After they have finished, talk about the book together.

A sharing book

 Your child should not be expected, nor will they be able, to read this book to you.  Please don’t expect them to read this independently or sound out unfamiliar words.  This book will have been chosen by your child from our classroom book corner, purely because they like it and want to share it with you.  By enjoying these books with your child and talking about the pictures and meaning together, you will be helping to develop a child who reads for pleasure and giving them to access to a far richer vocabulary – essential to help them understand their experiences and to develop a life-long love of reading itself as a window to the wider world’.

Individual Reading in KS2

Once children have completed the Little Wandle Phonics programme and are fluent readers of age-appropriate texts children move on to our Accelerated Reader scheme. The reading books children have access to in this scheme are banded at different levels. Children read their book and when finished complete a quiz to assess their understanding of the book read. We suggest that pupils read their book at least twice, unless otherwise instructed, and have the opportunity to discuss with an adult before taking the quiz. Children take termly quizzes called ‘Star tests’ to check the reading band and ensure their reading ability is within age-appropriate expectations. Children who are not can then be planned for and supported to build their reading skills through intervention sessions.

Reading in Class

All classes have access to books from Pie Corbitt’s reading spine. These books are strongly recommended due to the vocabulary and structure of the stories. Often our writing topics are based around a book from the reading spine. You may wish to visit your local library and access these stories to share at home. pie-corbett-with-page-no-1393983.pdf (scholastic.co.uk) Page 9 onwards.

Children also have access to a wide range of non-fiction, poetry and diverse books. At some point in the school day the class is read to as a whole class, this promotes reading for enjoyment.