Intent

It is important that children are motivated to read at home regularly; when their reading miles increase, so does their fluency and stamina which in turn increases their enjoyment of reading. Therefore, the link between children's motivation to read and reading for pleasure is reciprocal. Furthermore, at Holy Family Primary School, we know that reading for pleasure is beneficial - not only for reading outcomes but - for the wide learning enjoyment and mental wellbeing. For this reason, we work hard to foster a love of independent reading and build communities of engaged readers. We understand the significance of parents and carers in supporting their children to develop both word reading and comprehension skills, so we endeavour to build a home-school partnership which enables parents and carers to have the confidence to support their children to read at home.

Implementation

• New reading books added to the book scheme
• Use of BoomReader - online reading records
• Awarding Dojo points for nights read
• High-quality daily class book
• 100 nights reading celebrated with a book of their choice
• Bookmarks to support pupils with book talk at home - KS2
• Top Tips to support parents with book talk at home - EYFS/KS1
• Training videos/workshops for parents and carers
• Visits to the 'Reading Portal'
• Inviting book corners
• Book Week
• Performances
• Book buddies
• Drop Everything and Read sessions!
• Trained parent reading volunteers
• Use of online libraries Oxford Owl, Get Epic
• Participating in local and national reading initiatives
• Visits to local libraries

Impact

Children’s progress in reading is continually reviewed through phonic assessments, assessed against the National Curriculum and our own Reading Progression, our Holy Family Reading assessments – which were created using the ‘The Book Band Guide’ by BookLife –, regular one-to-one reading, the Phonics Screening Test at the end of Year 1 and using the statutory assessments at the end of Key Stage One and Two. These results are measured against the reading attainment of children nationally. However, we firmly believe that reading is the key to all learning and so the impact of our reading curriculum goes beyond the results of the statutory assessments. By teaching high quality phonics and early reading, we give all children the opportunity to enter the magical worlds that books open up to them. We promote reading for pleasure as part of our reading curriculum. Children are encouraged to develop their own love of genres and authors and to review their books objectively. This enhances a deep love of literature across a range of genres, cultures and styles. Pupil voice at Holy Family Primary School also shows the impact reading has on our children.