Intent

The National Curriculum states that ‘Reading feeds pupils’ imagination and opens up a treasure-house of wonder and joy for their curious young minds. Here at St. Andrew the Apostle we intend to deliver an engaging reading curriculum which develops all children’s love and appreciation of literature. We believe it is essential that every child, regardless of their ability, will be fluent, confident readers by the time they leave us.

Implementation

Our reading curriculum begins with rigorous and systematic phonics sessions from foundation and continues throughout Key Stage One, to develop decoding and word recognition skills through the Read Write Inc scheme. This is all built on in Key Stage Two by planning well-structured lessons that begin by supporting independence, fluency and understanding in order to develop all pupil’s accurate and effortless reading. One approach we adopt to do this is through The Power of Reading. We have carefully selected high quality literature to ignite joy and curiosity in our pupils. We are fully committed to continually develop reading for pleasure, both in school and beyond, therefore we encourage children to read widely and frequently across fiction and non-fiction.

Impact

Our systematic phonics sessions mean children have strong foundations to build on once they start in Reception. Through The Power of Reading children access cross-curricular links with a plethora of rich, topic related vocabulary. The activities are built upon to develop comprehension skills from foundation Stage to Year 6. Reading widely across many genres develops our pupils’ knowledge of themselves and the world in which they live. Fostering a love of books throughout the school means children are immersed in the written word and enjoy the fun, challenge and success this brings.