Reading
"The more you read the more things you will know. The more you learn the more places you will go." Dr Suess.
At Hawridge & Cholesbury CE School, we believe that reading is essential to enabling children to grow and flourish and so we strive to develop a passion for reading in all children which we hope they take with them into secondary school and beyond. Through a variety of rich experiences we create opportunities which nurture a love of reading and a fascination in literature. Some of these opportunities are:
- We encourage members of our school, families and local community to share their love of reading in our weekly 'Mystery Reader' sessions in Key Stage 1.
- We work closely with local bookshops to invite authors into school to share their work and experiences.
- We invite Key Stage 1 families to read with their children in our weekly Friday 'Read-In's at the beginning of the school day, (see below.)
- We prioritise daily story times for all classes as well as daily reading sessions.
- We make time for all children to have access to our wonderful school library.
- We celebrate World Book Day and celebrate the many different books our children enjoy reading.
Phonics is crucial to successful teaching of early reading and children are taught phonics using the Read Write Inc approach (see separate tab for more details) As part of our high aspirations for all our children we continue to teach phonics throughout a child’s time at Hawridge & Cholesbury CE School, until children have reached a standard that allows them to access texts independently and confidently.
Reading - Implementation
Reading skills are developed within Guided Reading sessions throughout the school and also form a central part of all curriculum areas supporting the learning that children undertake. All children will read widely across both fiction and non-fiction to develop their knowledge of themselves and the world in which they live, to establish an appreciation and love of reading, to gain knowledge across the curriculum and develop their comprehension skills. It is our intention to ensure that, by the end of their primary education, all our pupils are able to read fluently, and with confidence, in any subject.
Please see Phonics tab for information about the teaching of phonics and support information for parents
Please see World Book Day Tab for highlights of World Book Day
Please see Online Author Events for information about our exciting online visits
In Key Stage Two we teach guided reading in whole class sessions where no child is left behind. Whole class reading is taught daily for 20-30 minutes four times a week. A typical week has one session solely focused on reading for pleasure and three sessions using texts with themes from the wider curriculum. Although focussed on reading skills primarily, these sessions will consolidate or widen topics learnt in other lessons such as Science, English and Geography to name a few.
During these lessons, children will take part in activities to include: vocab check, quick quiz, partner talk, individual or partner thinking and solo work. The teacher will model high quality examples to aid the children’s thought process and support their test technique for older year groups. Children record answers and responses in their guided reading journals and teachers and support staff provide fast feedback on their learning.
Whilst reading for pleasure children will make records in their reading journals. Teachers are then able to h suggest activities which the children can take ownership of related to their current reading book.
Class Reader
The class novel or a picture book is shared with the children for approximately 15 minutes a day This is usually read by the teacher or another adult in class. The teacher will discuss the book with the children as they progress through the story filling these sessions with rich discussion on the over-arching themes of the text.
Library Visits
A visit to the library is scheduled on each class’ timetable where children can select from a variety of books to take home.
The Reading Environment
Classrooms and all school areas provide a print rich environment to promote the importance of reading. Reading displays should form a part of that environment. All classes have a welcoming book corner which contains reading books at their level of reading and topic-themed collections of non-fiction books.
Read-ins
(Reception and KS1)
You are invited to: Read-in Friday 8.40am – 9.00am in your child’s classroom
We would like to invite you to come in to the classroom with your child on Friday mornings to share a book together. We will have a variety of books available to read, however, you may wish to bring in a book from home. Please do not worry if you are unable to stay with your child, as we will be encouraging children to pair up with a friend and their parent/ carer. The staff in school will also be sharing stories with the children. If you have more than one child in the lower part of the school, you are welcome to bring them in to one of the classrooms, but please make sure that their class teacher knows exactly where they are. We look forward to seeing you at our Read-in sessions.