At Glynne we believe that a love of books should be at the heart of every child's learning journey.

From an early age many of us will have fond memories of stories that were read to us by our parents, grandparents, brothers and sisters, as well as other close relatives and family friends.

There is something magical about getting lost in a good book; something that everyone should experience!

Our Approach to the Teaching of Reading

Reading is a key life skill; a skill that is taught in Literacy based lessons and used across the whole curriculum. At Glynne we actively promote the importance of reading for pleasure and strive to ensure that all children develop competencies in the two dimensions of reading - word reading and comprehension.

Our children regularly listen to adults reading aloud; something that is as important for our older children as it is in early years. We know that language acquisition is hugely important; the number and variety of words that our children know is a significant predictor of how well they will do in later schooling and in life. We believe a language rich environment and a sharp focus on reading is the key. Therefore vocabulary development is planned for through the stories and texts that we share.

Each Learning Journey that the children experience is driven by a wide range of quality texts. This shows that we have placed reading at the heart of our children's curriculum entitlement.

We begin teaching phonics in Early Years Foundation Stage and this is continued in KS1, and then KS2 where necessary. We follow the 'Supersonic Phonic Friends' programme (which is a government validated scheme) and reading is taught through a systematic synthetic approach.

All children have an individual reading book that should be taken home and read on a regular basis. Each reading book is levelled to closely match the phonics being taught and the main scheme we use is Collins Big Cat Letters and Sounds. The scheme is also supplemented by other books as we believe it is important to offer children a range of reading material.

Reading is also taught through guided reading sessions. This is where an adult will work directly with a small group of children to ensure that they are applying their phonic skills, developing their comprehension skills and asking/answering questions about what they have read.

As children move through KS2 we also introduce them to 'Accelerated Reader' which begins in Year 3. This is an internet based programme that provides a quiz for each child to complete once they have read their chosen book. The children get instant feedback on their reading and parents can also access information through 'Home Connect.' We find that this is a good resource to motivate our older children.

To support children's own independence in selecting reading material we are lucky to have two libraries in school. One for Early Years and KS1, the other aimed at KS2 children. Both libraries are used regularly and we have employed a school librarian who supports children's library skills, oversees the smooth running of both libraries, audits resources and monitors library use across school.