Intent

At Heathrow Primary School it is our intention that our pupils foster a lifelong love of books and reading throughout their primary school life and way beyond. We immerse our pupils in the wonders of quality texts to instil a love for reading, a passion for discovery and a confidence to explore their imagination.

The school uses a variety of reading schemes to enable the children to access and read a wide range of texts. These include: Project X, Oxford Reading Scheme, alongside classic and modern literature. The aim of this is to ensure that our pupils have access to a wealth of quality reading material that motivates them to want to read.

Implementation

We have a clear, consistent, whole school approach to reading. Reading is closely linked with writing – the two activities reinforce each other. Children become successful readers by using a range of strategies to get to the meaning of the text. We believe literate children should read with confidence, fluency, expression and clear understanding. In order to achieve this they need to be taught the full range of reading strategies, including:

• phonic knowledge (visual information)
• grammatical knowledge (structural information)
• word recognition and graphic knowledge (visual information)
• contextual knowledge (meaning)

During Book Club sessions and independent reading, teachers teach these skills and monitor pupils’ reading to allow them to:

• Develop an interest in words and their meanings, developing a varied and rich vocabulary.
• Read a range of genres in fiction and poetry.
• Understand, use and are able to access information in a range of non-fiction texts.
• Develop an interest in words and their meaning, developing a varied and rich vocabulary.
• Read a range of genres in fiction and poetry.
• Understand, use and are able to access information in a range of non-fiction texts.
• Develop their own powers of imagination, inventiveness and critical awareness.
• Discuss books with reference to author, illustrator, genre, theme and characters and express personal responses with increasingly fluency and confidence.
• See the reading process being modelled by their teacher and participate in activities with the whole class, as a member of a smaller group or individually.
• Have a suitable technical vocabulary through which to understand and discuss their reading.
• Show an interest in books, read with enjoyment and evaluate to justify their preferences.

Impact

We strive to ensure that our children’s attainment is in line or exceeds their potential when we consider the varied starting points of all our children. We measure this using a range of materials, whilst considering the age-related expectations for each year group. We intend that the impact of our reading curriculum will ensure our pupils are academically prepared for life beyond primary school and throughout their education journey.