Reading
Reading around our school
We value reading for pleasure and have created areas around the school that children can access at set times during the week during break times.
Each classroom has a cosy reading area that children can enjoy at different times during the school day.
Reading Buddies
Year 6 children have buddies in Reception and children act as role models to further enthuse our young pupils in the fun and importance of reading.
Rainford C of E Primary School
Reading for Pleasure Policy
Why is Reading for Pleasure Important?
Research has shown how developing a love of reading is important for children’s life chances. According to the OECD, “Finding ways to engage pupils in reading may be one of the most effective ways to leverage social change”. Analysis showed that students whose parents had the lowest occupational status but who were highly engaged in reading obtained higher average reading scores than students whose parents had high or medium occupational status but who were poorly engaged in reading. Researchers in England have noted that “as students become engaged readers, they provide themselves with self-generated learning opportunities that are equivalent to several years of education.” They also reported that children with a positive attitude to reading are more likely to practice the reading skills they are learning at school.
Our School
Reading sits at the heart of out curriculum, and our aim is to ensure that every child becomes a confident and successful reader. At Rainford C of E Primary we believe that active encouragement of reading for pleasure is a core part of every child’s educational entitlement, whatever their background or attainment because we know that extensive reading and exposure to a wide range of texts make a huge contribution to students’ educational achievement. We aim to promote the concepts of reading for 'fun', 'enjoyment' and 'pleasure' and we ensure that we include a range of ‘real books’ within the Curriculum for English as well as the opportunity for sustained reading from a range of other self‐chosen fiction and non‐fiction texts from our school library. Where we believe that children have little access to good quality books the school tries to provide compensatory measures which allow equality of access to all children e.g. sending extra books home, reading with a buddy, lunch time library club (reading café).
We ensure that all classes have access to our school Library and that they are able to browse and read a wide selection of books. We believe that the staff and adults who work at our school should be ‘reading role models’ and we try to ensure that adults share their favourite texts with the children. We display staff as Life Long Readers throughout school and celebrate the love of literature within the staff through sharing our current books of choice. We use our website to promote and share “quality” texts that we enjoy within our curriculum. Our Early Years team ensures that parent volunteers read to small groups or whole classes on a regular basis and that many classes are able to make links with the local library.
We start our academic year sharing our favourite books and use our book corners to promote our favourite texts as well as encourage children to continue reading other materials by authors they have studied in English. We ensure that reading remains on the School Council agenda annually and we conduct a pupil voice questionnaire annually to ensure that children can support us to develop the reading provision at Rainford. Throughout the year we partner Y6 with Y3 and Y5 with Y2 children for daily supported reading. This is particularly successful and ensures that the younger children see good role models closer to their own age. There are also further opportunities to create ‘buddy readers’ across other year groups where teachers are willing. We display posters around the school showing celebrities who have been “caught reading” and encourage children to be caught reading as well.
Regular Times to Read
At Rainford C of E Primary we have regular Guided Reading sessions. Children read within small groups with an adult. In addition to Guided Reading sessions, all pupils have weekly taught reading lessons in which key reading skills are at the heart all sessions. Children also get to enjoy ‘reading for pleasure’ sessions at the end of each day. Each class shares a class reader with their peers and class teacher. Reading for Pleasure sessions follows a Reciprocal Reading format so that children are given an opportunity to practise reading skills taught in reading lessons. The focus of such sessions are to also allow opportunities to engage in informal ‘book gossip’. We know that by using a ‘Tell Me’ approach, reluctant readers feel more confident in sharing their thoughts about a text.
Readers at Risk of Falling Behind
As outlined earlier, we want to improve the life chances of children by ensuring that every child has access to quality experiences in English. We aim to support our readers on their journey. However, at Rainford C of E Primary, we acknowledge that for many reasons some children may become at risk of falling behind. When a child is identified as ‘vulnerable’ to not being on track to meet their full potential, intervention is swift and effective. Our Head, Reading Coordinator, and SENDCO along with class teachers and experienced HLTAs, monitor the progress of every child across the school. Once a concern is raised, our team will decide on an appropriate intervention strategy (e.g. one: one support, small group work etc.). We also offer special reading areas for children to ‘book in’ during lunchtimes.
Higher Achievers
At Rainford C of E Primary, we strive to challenge all of our pupils to achieve their full potential. For those children identified as ‘gifted readers’ or ‘higher achievers’, it is vital we continue to do so in order to maintain a high level of interest in their learning. Our reading coordinator provides weekly ‘Challenge Boosters’ for Y5 and Y6 children. In addition to this, we stock our class libraries with a range of rich, stimulating and thought provoking texts for children to choose freely throughout the school day.