Reading across school
Reading is the gateway to children’s future accomplishments. If we can nourish a love of reading, together with giving children the skills to read fluently, confidently and for pleasure, then our children will leave Mackie Hill equipped to go on to achieve the best they possibly can.
With this in mind, we have designed our reading curriculum to cover all aspects of reading, in line with the 2014 National Curriculum. Teachers choose high-quality texts which appeal to their individual class, often based around a current topic, for both weekly comprehension sessions (Year 2 upwards) and for daily Reading for Pleasure sessions. Reading objectives are then integrated into weekly English lessons, as part of a teaching sequence, to drive inspiration for writing.
Further opportunities are provided to give our children the best start with their reading:
- World Book Day is celebrated each year, which is always a much-enjoyed day. Classes join together, fostering enjoyment of books and togetherness across year groups, to take part in book-based activities and crafts
- Scholastic Book Fairs take place twice a year, giving families an opportunity to choose from new and exciting books
- Visitors from the School’s Library Service are invited each year to read extracts from their favourite books to each year group. The children love being read to by a visitor and they always come away eager to read the entire book
- We invite authors and poets into school to run engaging workshops and assemblies with the children so they have an insight into the works of professional writers
Aims
At Mackie Hill we aim to:
- Build a community of readers for life in which children are motivated to choose to read for enjoyment
- Develop children’s ability to discuss a wide range of texts and makes links between them
- Use reading skills as an integral part of learning throughout the curriculum
- Read and respond to a variety of texts whilst gaining increased levels of fluency, accuracy, independence and understanding
- Develop different strategies for approaching reading and be able to orchestrate the full range of strategies
Useful websites
https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/pages/encouraging-reading booklists and advice from an expert of 25 years
https://yotocarnegies.co.uk/ The UK’s oldest children’s book awards. There are always outstanding new texts to be found on their shortlists.
https://www.booktrust.org.uk/books-and-reading/ Provides book lists and information under a variety of different categories
