Reading at Great Waldingfield Primary School

At Great Waldingfield our aim is that every child will learn to read, irrespective of their background needs or ability and that they will develop a love for reading that will continue to grow as they move up through the school.

The teaching of reading starts as soon as the children join our Reception class. In Reception and KS1 class teachers use ‘Letters and Sounds’ which is a phonics resource published by the Department for Education and Skills. It is a systematic programme for teaching phonic skills which aims for all children to be fluent readers by the time they are seven. The sequence of reading scheme books, including, Oxford Reading Tree, Collins Big Cat, Dandelion Readers and Storyworlds is closely matched to ‘Letters and Sounds’ and class teachers give children plenty of practice in reading and re-reading these both at home and at school. Class teachers or LSAs ensure each child’s reading book is at the appropriate level for them.

Children, who need extra practice are quickly identified and become ‘Priority Readers’. Priority readers read with an adult in school every day to rapidly improve their fluency and decoding skills.

Alongside the decoding and fluency, children are taught comprehension skills so they can maximise the enjoyment of what they read. In KS2 and Year 2 comprehension is primarily taught through whole class teaching of reading. In Reception and Y1 learn reading comprehension skills are taught in smaller groups. Of course there are many other opportunities, across the curriculum to develop such skills as inference and deduction and how to use skimming and scanning to retrieve information efficiently, and class teachers will capitalise on these occasions.

At Great Waldingfield we have a culture of reading. There is a purpose built library which is well stocked with both fiction and non-fiction books. Early Years and KS1, choose a library book to take home to share with an adult. Each class teacher reads a high quality novel to their class for pleasure and the children are challenged to read six ‘Spine Books’ during the year which ensures they read a range literature from significant authors. Our ‘Rainbow Reading Challenge’ encourages the children to read regularly. In every class there is a book corner with age appropriate books either chosen by the class teacher or linked to the learning across the curriculum.

We have been celebrating the children’s achievements in practising/improving their reading at home throughout this year with our Rainbow Reading Challenge.  Half termly celebrations of reading have taken place to mark the children’s achievements including during lockdown with each celebration being themed around the colours of the rainbow.  

We have been celebrating the children’s achievements in practising/improving their reading at home throughout this year with our Rainbow Reading Challenge.  Half termly celebrations of reading have taken place to mark the children’s achievements including during lockdown with each celebration being themed around the colours of the rainbow.