Our Reading Vision at Eastling Primary School

Central to learning is creating a life-long love of reading and books. At Eastling Primary School, it is our belief that every child should be able to read for pleasure and to a high standard. We want to develop our children’s imagination to open up a treasure house of wonder and joy for curious young minds. We also believe that every child should be given the tools to develop into an enthusiastic and confident reader both at home and at school. Reading improves language and vocabulary, inspires imagination and gives everyone the opportunity to develop and foster new interests.

 

Every child is taught a range of strategies to support their development to become a confident, independent reader. In Foundation and Key Stage 1, Phonics through Letters and Sounds is taught on a daily basis which enables children to segment and decode words. Once the children have learnt how to read, they can then learn to comprehend and understand the text they are reading. Texts are engaging and provide them with the opportunity to practise their phonic sounds. Children are encouraged to use these strategies independently to understand, enjoy and learn from a range of texts. Through this, they will become fluent, expressive readers with the stamina to enjoy challenging texts. In KS2, ERIC provides children with the opportunity to apply their reading and comprehension skills to a variety of texts. Book discussion is widely encouraged in class, which supports children to empathise with characters, share opinions and debate topics.

 

Teachers nurture a love of books by placing reading at the centre of the curriculum, introducing new texts with enthusiasm and enjoyment, promoting a sense of wonder and expectation as the text is explored. All teachers use quality texts in all aspects of their teaching across the curriculum and provide opportunities that extend and enrich the children’s learning. It is these tools and opportunities that we believe give our children the necessary skills to become thoughtful and confident readers for life, which helps them in everything they do. The children at Eastling Primary School have independent access to a wide variety of high quality texts in dedicated class book corners.

 

We know that reading at home is an essential part of children becoming excellent readers and because of this, children have a wide range of banded fiction and non-fiction books for home reading. This choice ensures children continue to be enthusiastic and independent readers. Children are encouraged to read regularly at home from Foundation Stage to Year 6. Children’s individual reading records are an important source of communication between home and school and it is vital that these are signed to indicate how often the child has read.

 

In Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1, our Reading Rainbow Challenge actively promotes reading at home. For every 10 reads at home, the Children move up a colour on the rainbow and gain a certificate. Once Children have progressed through the seven colours, a further 10 reads gains them Reading Ambassador Status.