We know that the ability to read is fundamental to pupils’ development as independent learners, during their time at school and beyond. We understand that reading successfully and with enjoyment is critical to children’s long term life chances. It is central to our ability to understand, interpret and communicate with each other and the world around us. Therefore, reading is given high priority at our school, enabling children to become enthusiastic, independent and reflective readers across a wide range and types of literature, including different text types and genres, books, leaflets, comics and newspapers.

RWI Inc. Phonics

At Berrybrook Primary School, our children’s reading journey commences through Read, Write Inc Phonics.  We start this journey in Reception, and we aim for children to complete phonics by the end of Year 1.

Ready Steady Comprehension

From Year 2 to Y6, we follow the Literacy Counts ‘Ready Steady Comprehension’ programme, which is a daily 45 minute whole class reading session promoting both fluency and comprehension skills.

Each lesson follows a 4 step approach consisting of: Read, Model, Practise and Apply. The children learn a variety of strategies to support their reading comprehension including: skim reading, stop and jot and highlighting evidence.

The texts used are of a high quality and allow the children to explore new and challenging vocabulary within an age-appropriate context they will find exciting.

Home Readers

Your child will be sent home with a reading book within the first weeks at School. These initially will start as picture books before moving on to books with words in. We have a range of books on offer to our children and we encourage them to start to change their book regularly and independently as they move from Reception into Key Stage 1.

Home reading books are sent home to be shared together and at an appropriate and comfortable reading level. We encourage children, with the support of their parents, to record what they have read in their home reading record. Children will be heard read within school at least once a week individually.

Reading for Pleasure

Developing a love of reading is essential to becoming a strong, independent reader and so it is one of our key priorities. We achieve this in a number of ways, which include:

• • • • Weekly visits to our School Library
      • Regularly visiting our Reading Van
      • Class reading areas
      • Access to texts which link to class topics, so children have a range of books to choose from based on current interests
      • Dedicated reading for pleasure sessions
      • Access to hundreds on online books on MyOn both in school and at home