Reading
At Holywell, reading is a key pillar of our whole curriculum. We strive to develop the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information. By the end of Key Stage 2, it is our intent that all children will be prepared for secondary school by being able to read easily, fluently and with good understanding. Throughout their time at Holywell, they will have become familiar with a range of authors and appreciated a wide range of good quality texts, which will challenge and expand their understanding of the world they live in. We want to ignite a life-long love of reading.
To meet this aim, we have developed a progressive reading spine of rich texts. Reading is taught through a consistent and systematic approach to phonics, and an explicit skills-based approach to comprehension, which focuses on the skills of fluency, expression and pace, vocabulary development, retrieval, deduction, inference and evaluation. Teachers read regularly to the class, as we passionately believe that all our children are entitled to be read to regularly and experience the pleasure of a story and its emotional benefits. We also encourage a home-school partnership in relation to reading, as we understand the important role that parents and carers play in supporting their children to develop as readers.
To find out more about our teaching of reading at Holywell, please read our methodology below:
In September 2022. we introduced a highly acclaimed reading study spine. We invested heavily in resourcing this area of the curriculum, providing the children with access to high quality brand new books in every reading lesson. The titles have been carefully selected to offer a balance between classics and new texts. They show a range of protagonists from a range of demographic groups and cover a number of social issues.
Please take a look at the details below.
Comprehension is explicitly taught through a skills-based approach. These skills, which are taught progressively but not in isolation, are decoding; fluency, expression and pace; vocabulary; retrieval (for literal questions); deduction; inference and evaluation. The progression map (Appendix 1) break down the skills on a year by year basis. Comprehension is explicitly taught through a skills-based approach. These skills, which are taught progressively but not in isolation, are decoding; fluency, expression and pace; vocabulary; retrieval (for literal questions); deduction; inference and evaluation. The progression map below breaks down the progression through the curriculum and the whole class document outlines our consistent approach to the teaching of reading:
Our Book Study Spine
Our reading schemes for home readers is the Oxford Reading Scheme. We issue books in school with the expectation that they are read 5 times each week. If you wish to access book online, please follow the link below and refer to the guidance attached.