English Reading

“Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.” – Joseph Addison

INTENT

At Burrington Church of England School, we are passionate about reading, and consider ourselves READERS! 

Reading is at the heart of the curriculum and a vital key to adult success. We recognise reading as a useful tool in everyday life, however, we want our children to develop a love of reading; discover the pleasure of a good book and become life-long readers. We wish to inspire children with a passion for books and a love of the written word. 

We treasure our school library, situated physically and symbolically in the centre of our school.  As a staff, we are tireless in our ambition to provide children with exciting reading opportunities that stimulate a love of reading, in all its forms, and we celebrate reading both in classes and through whole school celebration services, through special roles, certificates and class awards. 

We prioritise reading because we acknowledge its importance in enabling children to access the wider curriculum, and its critical role in creating opportunities and widening life chances. We teach children to read accurately, fluently, expressively and reflectively for a wide range of purposes.   Above all, we want children to experience the true enjoyment of reading, enabling them to discover the pleasure, comfort, humour, knowledge and depth of understanding that a good book can bring.

We consider ourselves a community of readers. Therefore, we expect all adults to model and communicate their love of reading in the following ways:

• Story time in all class every day
• Opportunities for Reading for Pleasure at KS1 and KS2
• Shared, guided and reciprocal reading
• Providing exciting reading areas that inspire our children to read
• Reading with the individual children who need our support the most

We are delighted to be working with our Trust in the 'Explore' phase of a reading initiative supported by Christopher Such, during the academic Year 2025 2026 prior to further Trust work in 2026.

                                                IMPLEMENTATION

Reading is taught as a discrete skill in phonics and English lessons, in line with National Curriculum expectations, but it is also woven into many aspects of the school day.  Children read independently in groups, as whole classes and share class stories alongside the teaching text. Children read prayers, have library sessions and have access to book corners and a range of topic books linking to wider curricular subjects. 

Phonics

Children begin their reading journey in our Reception/Nursery class, in which we teach phonics following a systematic, synthetic phonics (SSP) approach.  We teach phonics using the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised programme.  As children move through the early stages of acquiring phonics, they practise by reading texts which are entirely decodable for them from the Collins Big Cat reading scheme. (See below for more information)

Reading Scheme

Once children have a secure knowledge of letter/sound correspondences and can blend words confidently, they access our reading scheme which has books from Collins 'Big Cat' and is designed to give children experience of a variety of reading genres. There are fiction and non-fiction books within each level.   Reading scheme books are used to support children’s reading development and are not viewed as a ladder to be climbed or a race to be won!  We build a partnership with parents through workshops, information letters, and leaflets which help to inform and build a collaborative reading culture both at home and at school. All children are encouraged to select books from the classroom, library or home to share with their parents to encourage a love of reading.

In school, children take part in taught reading practice sessions to develop and practise their skills of decoding, comprehension and prosody. The books used are carefully matched to a child's phonetic knowledge following careful assessment to ensure the child's success and learning is maximised.

In EYFS and Year 1 (and in Year 2 when appropriate), this takes the form of a small group session called a ' Reading Practice Session', using sets of decodable Big Cat books and following the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised (SSP) approach. 

Children have two/three reading practice sessions each week.   In the first session, the teaching is focused on developing phonetic confidence and decoding skills, whereas in the second session, the focus is on developing comprehension and prosody.  Children then take this book home to share with their families and to celebrate their reading progress. 

In KS1 our aim is for all children to have completed Phase 5 by the end of Year 1 and Phase 6 (Book Band White 10 / Book Band Lime 11) by the end of Year 2.   Where children are not achieving this level, interventions are put in place, such as prioritised 1:1 reading sessions and additional phonics support (Little Wandle Keep up/ Catch Up). 

Children are encouraged to read a book at least three times before it is changed, and this expectation is shared with parents through bespoke reading diaries, written communication, and in parental workshops. 

In addition to fully decodable books, KS1 are given a 'shared' reading book for parents to read to their child. Parents are educated on the benefits of shared reading, such as: bonding with children; supporting their growing brain, and help to develop social, language and learning skills. It also helps build a bedtime routine for a good night's sleep. 

Please click here for some additional Little Wandle resources for parents. 

Once children have completed the main phonics programme of study and can read fluently, they follow our Book Banded reading scheme which has books from various published schemes. We continue to teach phonics and spelling rules throughout the school to ensure that children's spelling and reading continues to develop. Our older children develop their reading skills through taught fluency reading practice sessions, which follow on from the Big Cat phonics books, and then whole class reading sessions which enable the class teacher to teach and assess specific reading skills. 

Once children can read fluently, widely and with a good understanding, they are then able to self-select books for independent reading from the class libraries, school library or from home. Children in Year 5/6 are given a booklet with suggestions specifically tailored to encourage reluctant boys to read, and all children are incentivised to participate in the '100 Books to Read before leaving Year 6' to motivate reading classic children's texts. 

Curriculum Texts

At Burrington Church of England Primary School, we follow requirements of the National Curriculum for reading in each year group (1-6) and use texts carefully chosen as part of our new LSP writing curriculum supplemented with Literacy Tree texts.

We use these key texts for each year group as the basis to support the children in developing their reading, comprehension and writing skills.    Texts are mapped out for each year group, and are selected due to being high quality models ‘teaching texts’ of a particular aspect of the writer’s craft, their relevance to the wider curriculum, and how well they engage and motivate the children.  In discussion with the English Lead, texts may be changed to suit the needs of a particular year group or to address a particular need in the cohort. 

During the imitate phase of the teaching sequence, the class texts are explored, enabling children to question, engage, respond and reflect.  Children and teachers engage in ‘Book Talk’, during which they are able to deepen their understanding, shift their ideas and think together as a group to develop their understanding and comprehension of the text. 

We have also developed our ‘Burrington Reading Book Spine’, which documents additional texts with which children will become familiar during each year group.   These books may be used as part of the teaching sequence, during a special event (eg National Poetry Day) or as a shared class novel.  We have carefully selected these texts to engage children in their learning, promote discussion, act as a models for teaching a particular English skill, or to play a part in building children’s cultural capital.  The texts for each year groups are specifically selected to ensure that they are age-appropriate, engaging and inspiring high quality texts.   We also use extracts from other texts as appropriate, such as in our comprehension text books.   

Reading Practice

All children in the school have reading practice sessions.  In EYFS and KS1, this takes the form of small group sessions, using sets of decodable Big Cat books. In Years 3 and 4, children continue to develop their reading skills with Reading Fluency sessions, which follow on from the phonetically decodable scheme These books are an introduction to short chapter books and focus on fluency, prosody and comprehension. Older children are taught as a whole class, using a variety of sources, such as: comprehension pupil books, VIPERS (Literacy Shed) texts and classic novels for KS2.

Regular reading practice sessions for EYFS/KS1 enable the class teacher to hear individual children decode, teach and assess their phonic skills and develop prosody. In KS2, children are taught the nuances of vocabulary, inference, recall, prediction, explanation and justification using evidence and summarisation skills. Year 6 are taught to answer complex 3-mark questions using P.E.E.L structure (Point, Explanation, Evidence, Link)  

Within the reading sessions, children may explore aspects of phonics, spelling, punctuation and grammar, plot development, vocabulary, characterisation and are able to discuss themes, topics, puzzles and questions. They are also encouraged to make personal links. It is through these sessions, that children are taught to enjoy books and celebrate words and language as an art form. Teachers use these sessions as an on-going opportunity to assess children in their reading, and to plan accordingly. 

Independent Reading for Pleasure

We support and encourage children’s independence and stamina in their reading by providing them with opportunities during the school day to read quietly to themselves.  All children are encouraged to have their reading book in school every day.  The books are either a scheme book or if the child is an independent reader then they can self-select their reading book from the library during their library visit or from the class book corners.  Book choices are monitored and guided by the class teachers, with the support from our school librarians, and with an awareness of the child’s interests and reading needs.

Home Reading

All children are given a Reading Record, in which they can keep a record home reading.  We ask that parents sign the record to celebrate the children’s reading.   This forms part of the children’s homework (see homework policy). Reading records are checked by teachers on a regular basis, which enables teachers to build a picture of each child as a reader, and to monitor a child’s enjoyment, frequency and their reading diet.  We award children with certificates for the ‘Number of Reads’ that they achieve (50 bronze, 100 silver, 150 gold, 200 platinum).  We also provide KS2 parents with a ‘Recommended Reads’ list at the start of each academic year to support them in choosing a variety of high quality texts for their child.  Weekly book recommendations are provided in the newsletter. 

Book Buddies

Other strategies we use from time to time include 'book worms (KS1) and butterflies (KS2)' reading sessions, where children from KS2 are invited to support and encourage younger readers and act as positive reading role models. We also might invite children on an ad hoc basis to share books with younger pupils to inspire and delight.

 Adaptation and Special Needs

Summative Assessments