Reading at Chennestone

We love reading at Chennestone Primary School and we aspire that our children will share in the pleasure that can be gained by a love of books!  We value reading as a key life skill and are dedicated to enabling our pupils to reach their full potential as lifelong readers.  We believe reading is key to academic success and enable children to leave us able to make a difference.  Reading can be a vehicle  to explore diversity and develop the children's cultural capital.

Reading is used to support learning.  Reading is inclusive and is the bedrock to all areas of the National Curriculum.  Through books children engage with the topics they are discovering and can explore the world in which we live.  Reading happens across the whole curriculum.

We believe children move along their reading journey of 'Learning to Read to Reading to Learn'.  Children develop strategies to tackle tricky words, building on the phonics learnt in KS1 and using other strategies too, such as reading around the word.  For those children where further phonics learning is requires, we plan targeted interventions.  

We expect children to read at home at least three times a week and expect parents to support their child's reading development.  We encourage parents and children to make comments in the child's reading record book.

Whole Class Book 

As a way of showing our love for reading, teachers regularly read to their class.  We believe there is a value and pleasure to be had in sharing a book together and finding out where a story takes us!  We want our children to be skilled and enthusiastic readers.

Every class in KS1 and KS2 has a whole class read which may be a longer novel read over a period of time, or a daily picture book. Each day, the class teacher will read the whole class book for at least 10 minutes as an essential part of our approach to reading. It is one way that we can model our enthusiasm for reading, for books and to create magic and excitement around the special joy of reading a good book. Our books are selected to develop children's vocabulary, broaden their understanding of a concept, or to enthuse a love for reading. Very often the class book is linked to the curriculum the children are studying, either through their Big Question, or a specific subject area. 

Accelerated Reader 

Once children have completed Read, Write Inc, our phonics scheme, they are moved onto Accelerated Reader.