Reading
Infant
Intent
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At Christ Church (Church of England) Infant School and Nursery we believe that the ability to read is fundamental to pupils’ development as independent learners. Success in reading has a direct effect on progress in all areas of the curriculum; therefore, reading is given a high priority, enabling the children to become enthusiastic, independent and reflective readers across a wide range of literature. Reading is a complex skill with many components. Successful approaches to the teaching of reading should encourage children to use a variety of strategies in their pursuit of meaning. It is important to lay firm foundations in this crucial area of the curriculum and establish a consistent whole school approach to the teaching of reading.
We want our children to be ‘readers’, not just children who can read.
Aims
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Develop fluent, confident and independent readers
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Help children to develop a love of reading and recognise its value
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Give children the confidence to read aloud with expression and clarity
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Develop and extend the children’s vocabulary through shared and whole class reading
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To teach children to use a wide range of reading strategies
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Encourage children to talk about books and texts read to show their understanding
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Develop children’s interests through a wide range of media
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For every teacher to be an advocate for reading
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To create reading opportunities across all areas of the curriculum
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​Implementation
At Christ Church (Church of England) Infant School and Nursery we want our children to be passionate about books that will open up new worlds and ideas for them. As such, we provide a wide range of opportunities and strategies to develop pupils early reading skills and understanding of texts.
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Daily high quality Read Write Inc. phonic lessons
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150+ graphemes taught
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Children taught ‘Red’ tricky words
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Half termly assessments to check progress
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Catch up interventions for any child falling behind
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Whole class reading once RWInc completed
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Reading dogs* used to teach reading skills across the domains
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1-1 reading for children in Reception and KS1 with emerging/developing skills
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Guided Reading sessions for Rec and KS1 pupils with developing/secure skills
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RWInc book bag books are used for home reading linked to pupils phonic level
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Addition ‘Read with me’ colour banded books chosen by each child to develop own preferences, greater range of genres and enhance a love of reading
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Daily story time
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Book corner in each class provide opportunities for shared reading and choice of genres
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*Reading Dogs are a technique used to teach reading strategies:
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Vocabulary Victor- Victor looks at the words the authors choose in the book.
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Rex Retriever- Rex will help retrieve facts from a text.
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Predicting Pip- Pip tries to look into the future to see what might happen next.
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Sequencing Suki- Suki likes everything in order, she helps to sequence a story.
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Inference Iggy- Iggy hunts for clues in a text to tell you how someone might be feeling or why something happens.
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Impact
At Christ Church (Church of England) Infant School children make at least good progress in reading from their starting point in EYFS to become confident, fluent readers by the end of Key Stage One. Children at Christ Church develop a love of reading; they love listening to stories and sharing books with their teachers, family and friends. Children at Christ Church see reading as an essential life skill. They develop their own interest in books developing a deep love of literature across a range of genres cultures and styles. Children are familiar with and enjoy listening to a range of stories, rhymes, poems and non-fiction. They enjoy reading and are happy and confident to talk about their progress, learning, favourite texts and authors.
Junior
We love Reading at Christ Church!
Please click on our 'Reading Policy' link to read about our Reading Intent (the What), Reading Implementation (the How) and the Impact of Reading at Christ Church.
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At Christ Church Juniors, we love reading! Here are some links that you may find useful...
Class Padlets
Year 3
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3B- https://padlet.com/sbeason4/3b-s-bookshelf-qbk26iok38vftf8z
3C- https://padlet.com/mcharlesworth2/3c-s-bookshelf-8essufhtmlg2fj9y
Year 4
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4S- https://padlet.com/jslater47/4s-s-bookshelf-okd7tc4vgq7dxbu7
4K- https://padlet.com/aknowles42/4k-s-bookshelf-6az744ic867bhsvm
Year 5
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5C - https://padlet.com/hlouisecox/5c-s-bookshelf-hga8wryn92u8wnqo
5M- https://padlet.com/dmoriarty7/5m-s-bookshelf-31mkongv4dodghy6
Year 6
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6C- https://padlet.com/kcain35/6c-s-bookshelf-2edfsnm5rquvqrzi
6M- https://padlet.com/lmcwilliams6/6m-s-bookshelf-k5gy13p0umvdv1uq
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Reading at home
Do you remember your favourite books as a child – you know, the ones you read time and time again and knew practically every word of? Maybe you were lucky enough to regularly read stories with your family and had someone to read you a bedtime story before you drifted off to sleep? You won’t have known at the time, but those experiences were building vital building blocks for your future.
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Reading, being read to, and sharing books in the home helps to build a child’s vocabulary and understanding of the world. Research shows children who start school with good vocabulary and communication skills make friends more easily, have fewer behavioural issues and are more likely to do well academically. A strong, early foundation in language has even been linked to better mental health as children get older.
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Reading with your child, or encouraging your child to read independently for just ten minutes each day can make all the difference. Here are some tips to help children of all ages to enjoy reading and to get reading more often.
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Julia Donaldson shares her best tips to encourage reading at home.
Bedtime Reading Bags
Each week two children from each year group will receive a bag which contains either a story or poetry book appropriate to their year group, a packet of biscuits, two hot chocolates and a reading journal log.
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Our aim is to encourage shared reading at home with the additional enjoyment of a biscuit and a cup of hot chocolate.
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Children will be chosen randomly each Friday to take home a Bedtime Reading Bag to read and share with their family. They are encouraged to create a reading response (look at the examples) and return to school the following week.
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At Christ Church, we understand the importance of reading being a pleasurable experience, our Bedtime Reading Bags encourage families to read and develop reading skills together. Enjoy!
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Year 5/6 Book Recommendations
Bookworms Newsletter
Celebrating Reading!
At Christ Church, we like to celebrate World Book Day in style! WBD is celebrated all over the country on the first Thursday in March every year & we like our children to not only ‘get reading’ but also to do lots of other amazing activities.
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This year was no exception! Both children at home and in school became book characters, authors, designed book tokens to enter in this year’s WBD competition, wrote letters to their favourite authors and even created their favourite book characters out of potatoes! Not to mention children taking 5 minutes out of their day to read - some in very unusual places!
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Masked Reader!
Staff at Christ Church love to read too and do all that they can to instil a love of reading! As part of the WBD celebrations, teachers ran a ‘Masked Reader’ competition for their pupils after being inspired by the British reality singing competition television series, ‘The Masked Singer’. Each day leading up to WBD, children had to guess who the ‘Masked Reader’ was. Did you guess correctly?
Useful Links
