Reading

"Developing a love of reading in children can open up rich new worlds for them, through both imagination and discovery, and we recognise the importance of reading in developing intellectually curious children who are ready to embark upon a life of learning."

- extract from our Reading Policy (found at the bottom of this page)

A Love of Reading

There is nothing quite like getting lost in a book!  Most of us will still fondly remember our favourite childhood books and the stories that we were read at school when we were younger, and we want that to be something that is passed on to all our pupils. 

We have recently worked to expand the range of books available, particularly to our 'free readers' (those who have progressed past the end of our book-band reading scheme) and become Book Bandits, roaming the library landscape and reading without warning...

The new books were selected with the help of experts from Peters, to ensure an appropriate balance of fiction, non-fiction and poetry, as well as a good range of diversity in the backgrounds and genders of both authors and main characters.

Reading Skills

We work to ensure that the key skills of reading are being consistently taught, consolidated and developed within school.  To help the children understand the reading skills being focused on in each reading session (or sequence of sessions), we use the idea of VIPERS in Key Stage 2 (thanks to some great work from The Literacy Shed), and the corresponding Detective Dogs (created by Twinkl).  This allows children to know explicitly what areas of their reading we are working on and trying to develop.

More information for parents about the VIPERS and Detective Dogs can be found in the video resources section of this website, and in these booklets, created to support reading at home:

Reading Areas Around School

In recent years we have worked to create spaces around school where children can really immerse themselves in their reading.  This includes book corners within classrooms, our school library, and our beautiful outdoor story area, dedicated to the memory of the much-loved Mrs Storey.