Our reading intent
At English Martyrs’ Catholic Primary School, we believe that the teaching of reading is integral to a child’s understanding and appreciation of the world around them; a platform that allows our children to see beyond what they know, share in cultural experiences and develop the vocabulary they need to effectively express themselves.
Our reading curriculum strives to foster a lifelong love of reading. We cultivate the behaviours that our pupils need to be discerning readers, reading frequently and widely, using a range of strategies and discussing what they have read.
Early reading and development of speech and language is identified as a priority at English Martyrs’ and therefore vocabulary acquisition and application are planned into all subject areas.
We understand the importance of parents and carers in supporting their children to develop both word reading and comprehension skills, and so we want to encourage a home-school partnership which enables parents and carers to understand how to enhance the skills being taught in school through good quality texts and promote reading for pleasure.
All of these are essential components as they offer the range of opportunities needed to develop fluent, confident and enthusiastic readers and above all, a love and appreciation for reading.
The school aims to:
- Develop word reading skills which enable the children to decode words using a reading routine that is rehearsed and practised daily
- Develop children’s fluency, intonation and expression so they can read aloud for different purposes (accuracy, automaticity, prosody)
- Promote a love of reading which is centred around the interests of the children but also engage children with texts and knowledge outside their current experiences
- Support children’s comprehension skills through ensuring experiences of high-quality discussion with the teacher and peers, and establishing clear methods for answering a range of comprehension questions.
- Ensure children experience a range of genres and discuss a plethora of stories, rhymes, poems, traditional tales, stories from other cultures and non-fiction
- Develop a knowledge of themselves and the world in which our pupils live, through the texts they encounter
- Support pupils to read widely through a carefully selected and organised home reading programme, supplemented by a specifically chosen Book Spine, delivered by class teachers
- Encourage care and ownership of books
- Use reading and a language rich classroom environment to expose children to a wide range of vocabulary
- Rigorously monitor and assess children’s reading progress and identify those who need extra support and intervene at an early stage.