Reading

English – Reading

Intent: Our Vision

Reading should be an enjoyable, inspiring and imaginative experience for all children, opening up a treasure trove of wonder and joy for curious young minds. A child’s reading skills are fundamental to their success in school; they enable access to the full breadth of the curriculum and support the development of strong communication and language skills.

At Hightown J, I & N School, reading provides children with opportunities to grow culturally, socially and emotionally, as well as academically. We nurture and promote a love of reading that supports enjoyment, challenge and deeper understanding of texts. We believe that reading opens a world of curiosity and discovery, enriching children’s lives far beyond the classroom.

When children leave Hightown at the end of Class 6, our aim is that they will:

Read easily, fluently, confidently and with good understanding across all subjects.
Have developed the habit of reading widely and often, both for pleasure and for information.
Have acquired a rich vocabulary and strong linguistic knowledge, including the conventions of reading, vocabulary and grammar.

Implementation: Our Approach

At Hightown J, I & N School, we have a structured approach to the teaching of reading. We use a wide range of reading materials and teaching methods to help children learn to read in a way which meets their needs and challenges them appropriately. Throughout school, we have a rich collection of published books in order to encourage children’s desire to become readers. We are very lucky to have a School Library which all classes visit weekly and every class also has a Class Library or Reading area.

Each year group has a list of class books shared through a daily story time. This daily modelled reading supports fluency and fosters positive attitudes and motivation for reading. We celebrate and share these books in our Class Books display and Reading assemblies.

We are in the process of developing a new reading spine using ‘Reading Reconsidered’, Pie Corbett’s reading spine and Literacy tree. In ‘Reading Reconsidered’, Doug Lemov points out that there are five types of texts that children should have access to in order to successfully navigate reading with confidence. These are complex beyond a lexical level and demand more from the reader than other types of books.

We are also updating our Poetry Spine using Literacy Shed and Literacy Tree poems.

Both our Reading and Poetry Spines are being developed to ensure that children achieve this breadth of reading in every year group throughout their Hightown journey and are exposed to the appropriate level of challenge.

The teaching of reading and language comprehension within the classroom is only part of a child's learning, and the value that is given to reading at home is equally important.

Research suggests that children who read regularly outside of school perform significantly better in school assessments and enjoy reading more, so support at home is essential in ensuring that children make the progress they are capable of. Books are taken home on a daily basis along with a reading record so that children can be heard reading and a comment (even a brief one) can be made. Children should read daily and a comment should be written in their reading records at least 3 times a week.

Across Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1, we teach phonics daily using ‘Floppy’s Phonics’, supplemented with a same day focus session if required. The phonics lessons enable the children to segment and decode words. Once the children have learnt how to read, they can then learn to comprehend and understand the text they are reading. Children are encouraged to use these strategies independently to understand, enjoy and learn from a range of texts. Through this they will become fluent, expressive readers with the stamina to enjoy challenging texts.

Take a look at our phonics page to find out how early reading skills are developed at Hightown.

From Class 1, Reading is also integrated into Literacy lessons based around quality texts. Quality texts are age appropriate and sourced from either CLPE, Literacy Shed or Literacy Tree (By September 2026 solely Literacy Tree). Teaching ensures children are taught the skills of Reading Comprehension with a focus on supporting/checking that the children understand the meaning of the text and have a mental model of what they are reading.

From Class 2, Reading is also taught through Whole Class Guided Reading 3 times per week with a focus on fluency and prosody.

The 3 reading sessions are organised into:

Adult Modelling and pupil feedback, and unpicking of vocabulary (using the Whole School Vocabulary Strategy).
Assisted Reading – choral, echo and paired reading and text marking for punctuation, rehearsal and feedback
Comprehension questions

One short passage is used throughout the week, taken from Fred’s Teaching.

Across school we also have 1:1 reading for children who are not yet independent readers. The focus is decoding and then prosody, fluency and comprehension. The adult listening to the child read supports/checks that the child understands the meaning of the text and has a mental model of what they are reading. The children reread their 1:1 book. Repeated reading develops: accuracy, automaticity, fluency, prosody and comprehension.

Additional reading and phonics intervention sessions are also used for some children in EYFS, KS1 and KS2 to further support decoding, fluency and comprehension.

At Hightown, we offer a broad range of experiences to promote and foster a love of reading. Some of these include:

A Reading Ambassador

Reading Assemblies

Reading Surveys

Reading Club

Teacher Book Recommendations

Book Fairs

Online author events throughout the year

Christmas - When Father Christmas visits he always brings books for the children as presents.

Below is a link to Books for Topics that has recommended books lists for: each class; different subjects; and reading for pleasure. So, if you’re not sure what book to get your child next this would be a great place to look.

https://www.booksfortopics.com/