Reading

We recognise that reading is the key to all learning and our library is at the heart of our school. 

Our well-stocked library is open every day after school. Parents and children are encouraged to come in as often as possible to read or to borrow books.

   Mrs Tickner is our Reading Champion and Librarian. 

   She is on hand throughout the day and after school

   to offer advice and support to parents and children.

Mrs Tickner opens our cosy and inviting Reading Den at break and lunch times.  

We prioritise reading through our engaging book areas, world book days, daily reading lessons, storytelling sessions and Accelerated Reader sessions.  These are just part of what our enriching curriculum offers.  

We firmly believe that if we teach children to read confidently, fluently, accurately and with understanding, we can foster a love of reading and create lifelong readers.  We have ambitious expectations for our readers to become word millionaires and to complete the spine book challenge.

Our teachers are highly skilled at teaching early reading.  Children are taught to use phonics as a first approach when reading.  Phonics is taught as part of the daily reading lesson following the Sounds Write Programme.  You can find out more about Sounds Write here.

Phonics means that we teach children to read using letter sounds rather than letter names.  Please click here to see how to pronounce sounds correctly for the letters of the alphabet.

We encourage all parents to complete the free online course 'Help Your Child to Read and Write'.  You can access this course by clicking here.

All children receive a daily reading lesson or phonics lesson.  In Key Stage Two,  we use the SFA programme.  Children read a wide range of high quality books including fiction, non-fiction and poetry.   More information about the SFA Programme can be found here:  https://successforall.org.uk/about/

Core Texts

Teachers instil a love and passion for reading through daily exposure to high quality literature and poems.  Here are just some of the books that children will be exposed to during their time at the school.  

Nursery

Reception

Year 1

Year 2

Year 3   

Year 4 

Year 5      

  Year 6

Early Reading

Teachers instil a love of reading and ensure our children are exposed to a rich and varied vocabulary through extensive exposure to high quality books, rhymes and songs. We firmly believe that children should hear stories being read aloud several times a day. Teachers share books with children at every opportunity.

Early reading is taught through a systematic phonics approach using the Sounds Write  phonics programme.  Our teachers are highly skilled in the teaching of early reading and phonics.  As a result, the number of children meeting the standard in the Year 1 phonics screening check in 2024 was 83%.  Children read decodable books that are linked to the sounds they have been learning so they get the practise they need to develop automaticity and fluency in reading.  

We encourage parents to find out more about our phonics programme and how they can support at home by completing the free online course 'Help your child to read and write'  

You can find out more about this course using the link here.

We regularly invite parents in for reading meetings and to see phonics lessons in action.  Parents are  encouraged to come and watch their child's phonics lessons so they are able to support their child more effectively at home.  Parents told us that:

'It was lovely to watch the children learning.  It was also useful to see how they are sounding out the words so we can further support our child at home'

'It will help me to be able to help my child at home and it is nice to see how he is getting on.'

'It was very informative and helped show us as parents what we can implement at home.  It was also good to see our children in a school setting.'

Reading in Key Stage Two

Children in Key Stage Two receive a daily reading lesson in which they read a wide range of high-quality fiction, non-fiction and poetry. 

We use the Success for All programme to teach reading.  More information about the SFA Programme can be found here:  https://successforall.org.uk/about/

Homework

Children in Key Stage Two should read for 20 minutes every day.  This can be a book of their own choice.
You can get books from the school library, Crawley library and class book collections for reading at home.

Accelerated Reader

The Accelerated Reader programme allows pupils to take quizzes on the books they read for pleasure.

Please click here to access quizzes.

Our Library is open every day after school if you would like to bring your child in to quiz.

Please click here to find out more about Accelerated Reader.

Searching for Accelerated Reader books is fun and easy with the free online tool. Please click here to search for books.

English - Writing

Our intention is to teach children to be confident, fluent and accurate writers who can write for a range of purposes and in different styles.

We teach a daily writing lesson using the Talk4writing approach. Within this there is a strong focus on vocabulary learning which is especially important for our pupils. Our ambition lies in the choice of texts which provide progression and challenge.

Talk for Writing

We have a consistent approach to the teaching of writing across the school, with all year groups learning to write using the Talk for Writing process. Children learn a variety of model texts orally and use these as starting points in order to write texts of their own. In classrooms, you will see the Talk for Writing processes such as text maps, writing toolkits, shared writing and boxed up planning grids. In Talk for Writing lessons, the children learn to use rich language in a variety of contexts including oral retellings, role play, hot seating and language warm up games. In every unit of work, the children will follow the Talk for Writing process of imitation, innovation and invention.

For more information, click here to be taken to the Talk for Writing website.