We believe there are six building elements which support a child to read for pleasure:
Being read to regularly
Having books at home and at school
Having a choice in what to read
Finding time to read
Having trusted help to find a book
Making reading FUN!
Essential reading list per year group:
Each year group has an essential recommended reads list to expose children to rich, high quality language through a range of different genres and texts.
Opportunities to read
All our children read daily. We have an array of high quality texts both in our classrooms and our library. We are fortunate enough to have volunteers from our local community who give up their free time to hear children read alongside our school staff. We promote reading at home with parents and have our own 'Reading Ambassadors' (who read with Year 1 and 2), 'Reading Buddies' (who read with Merlin) and 'Reading Champions' (who promote a love of reading within our school and recommend reads using their class display). At Countess Gytha, we also hold lots of exciting reading events such as book swaps and book fairs alongside book clubs to discuss and share enjoyment of different texts.
Bookman Reading Challenges:
We regularly set our children Bookman reading challenges throughout the year to keep them motivated and encourage them to try new authors, new releases alongside classics reading texts.
Enriching children's vocabulary
At Countess Gytha, we have created a language rich environment to develop children's oracy and vocabulary skills. From the start of EYFS, children are exposed to a range of high level, technical and advanced vocabulary; this is reflected in their writing across the curriculum.
Lowest 20% Readers
Our lowest 20% readers all receive daily reading practice with an adult. Children receive rapid intervention and the focus is on supporting children to achieve age related expectations through support and individual targets; their progress is regularly monitored through intervention logs and monitoring.
Comprehension skills
Comprehension is a key feature of weekly English lessons. Children receive a weekly discrete comprehension lesson as part of a carefully sequenced curriculum alongside daily questions and modelling to elicit understanding and develop responses.
SPaG - Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar
All children are taught using a carefully planned, spiralised SPaG curriculum. Our progression of skills and knowledge ensures that children make excellent progress and build upon their existing understanding through practice and daily writing opportunities.
Oracy (Speaking and listening)
We provide daily opportunities for speaking and listening through questioning, planned activities, partner talk and opportunities for different year groups to perform through class productions and special events such as the pupil elections and class assemblies.