Reading - Our approach to teaching

Our approach to Reading
At Engaines we give a high priority to the teaching of Literacy Skills as we know that they are central to learning and equip children for their future. The teaching of reading is central to our endeavour to ensure that all children leave with an ability to read well.

We structure the teaching of reading from Early Years to Year 6 to ensure that skills development is matched to age and ability. We aim to produce confident independent readers who will develop a love of books and literature and be able to access reading for both pleasure, as well as to find and research information to help them discover the world around them.

We place an emphasis on phonic and word building skills and from April 2014 we have followed the ‘Letters and Sounds’ programme. This is a long established and well-proven system and there is lots of information about Letters and Sounds on the internet.

There are many opportunities for teachers and other adults to hear children read. For example this may be in the form of guided reading, reading a text during a history lesson or as part of a phonics session. Children may also receive additional support with their reading from Teaching Assistants during intervention sessions.

We encourage parents to be actively involved with their children’s reading by hearing them read at home, helping them with their sound cards and finding opportunities to share and enjoy books together. When the school organises special reading events, we encourage parents to support them: each half-term there is a ‘Stay and Read’ opportunity whereby we invite family members into school to join in with the pleasure of reading with their child.

We use a range of reading schemes across both Key Stages in order to provide children with a good choice of books both fiction and non-fiction.