Please Note: This page is under construction. All information about reading can be found via Key Information - Curriculum - English - Reading. 

At Newhall Park, we place reading and books at the centre of our curriculum and we are passionate about nurturing a love of reading.  We are determined that every pupil will learn to read and strive to ensure that they make sufficient progress to meet or exceed age-related expectations.  We believe the development of English reading skills is central to improving a pupil’s life chances.  Because of this, we aim to deliver high-quality reading provision by equipping pupils with a strong command of the spoken word and developing their love of literature and reading for enjoyment through access to a wide range of rich and varied texts.

Learning to Read:  Early Years and Key Stage One

Phonics

We teach reading through Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised, which is a systematic and synthetic phonics programme. We start teaching phonics in Reception and follow the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised progression, which ensures pupils build on their growing knowledge of the alphabetic code, mastering phonics to read and spell as they move through school.

Early Reading Practice Sessions

Early reading practice sessions take place three times a week in Reception and Year 1 and continue during the first term of Year 2. After this point, we will teach reading in this way for any pupils who still need to practise reading with decodable books. Reading practice sessions are taught in small groups with books matched to the pupils’ secure phonic knowledge using the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised assessments. Each reading practice session has a clear focus so that the demands of the session do not overload the pupils’ working memory. They have been designed to focus on three key reading skills: decoding (applying phonic knowledge to read the words), prosody (teaching pupils to read with understanding and expression) and comprehension (teaching pupils to understand the text).

Learning to Read: Whole-Class Reading

Across school, all pupils take part in whole-class reading sessions and they read a variety of high-quality texts.  These rich and varied texts are selected to ensure there is appropriate stretch and challenge for all pupils which will ignite their imagination and fire their curiosity.  Within these sessions, we prioritise prosodic reading to develop fluency, understanding of the text and reading stamina.

Reading for Pleasure

‘Reading for pleasure is the single most important indicator of a child’s future success’ OECD, 2002. 

At Newhall Park, we want our pupils to thrive.  We place reading at the centre of our curriculum and we are passionate about nurturing a love of reading.  We are committed to providing a more satisfying and diverse range of texts in school as well as continuing our investment in a growing accessible provision of rich and varied literature.  We understand the importance of reading for pleasure for both educational purposes as well as personal development and we know that it offers so many significant benefits to children, including increased attainment in literacy and numeracy; improved general knowledge; richer vocabulary; support in identity exploration; and enhancement of imagination and empathy.  In order to maximise these benefits, we are determined to create opportunities that develop:

•             teachers’ knowledge of children’s literature

•             teachers’ knowledge of children’s reading practices

•             social reading environments

•             reading aloud to children

•             pupils’ independent reading

•             informal book talk

•             teachers who read and readers who teach

•             reading communities

Reading across the Curriculum

Across school, pupils have access to fiction, non-fiction and poetry which link to the curriculum topics. Books are signposted in the library and explicit links are made on working walls within every classroom so that children can make links between reading and learning.  Pupils are encouraged to read widely to enhance their understanding of subjects.