Reading at Burton

“Teach a child to read and keep that child reading and we will change everything. And I mean, everything.”

Jean Winterson.

At Burton Primary School, Reading is at the heart of our curriculum as it unlocks an unlimited potential in all of us. Our aim is for every child to leave Burton a fluent and enthusiastic life-long reader.

Throughout their primary journey with us, the children are taught how to read, understand and enjoy a broad range of high quality texts every day. Across EYFS and both Key Stages, we carefully select a range of fiction, non-fiction and poetry texts designed to develop children’s cultural and social awareness as well as fostering a love of reading and enriching our curriculum.

Right from their very first day in Reception at Burton, children begin learning to read!  We successfully use the Read Write Inc (RWI) scheme in Early Years Foundation and throughout Key Stage 1 and for those children in Key Stage 2 for whom additional support is needed. RWI develops reading skills through robust and daily teaching, enabling the introduction and consolidation of phonics, the development of early reading skills and basic comprehension. Children are then able to read with increased speed and fluency and access the wider curriculum. The books the children are provided with match and support their phonics development and ability.

When the children enter Key Stage Two, and once fluency is in place, we begin to focus more explicitly on the core reading skills – comprehension, inference, authorial intent- and look for links within and across themes and genres. Texts are chosen to be engaging and thought provoking, and linked by themes on a half termly basis. This enables our learners to make comparisons across them and provide them with a broad range of reading experiences. Reading skills are taught as a whole class session, 3 times a week, with at least one of the skills being a focus. Teachers will model that skill as well as enable plenty of discussion opportunities so that speaking and listening skills can be developed too.

Reading is integral to every class across the school and our purpose for promoting reading for enjoyment is our priority. Every class across the school has its own book corner which children are encouraged to ‘borrow from’.  In EYFS children are invited to take a ‘story sack’ home every week to share a book at home with related activities. In EYFS & KS1, children have access to allowing them to share books with their peers, take an early interest in different genres as well as the opportunity to take these books home to share with their parents or carers. In KS2, children have further opportunities to enjoy reading: children take part in DEAR time (Drop Everything And Read) across the week which promotes the idea of ‘reading for pleasure’ as children can choose to read whatever they are interested in. All children are read to daily from a ‘class read’ promoting more reading for enjoyment.

In addition to reading in school, we actively encourage parents to embrace reading at home. Children take a book home to read with or to an adult and this is recorded via Boom Reader - an app – with children’s efforts being celebrated and rewarded accordingly.