Reading

Reading at Sapperton

We believe that the ability to read is fundamental to our pupils succeeding; nurturing and inspiring them in becoming confident and thoughtful readers. The skills of reading are embedded in all areas of the National Curriculum areas and so are fundamental in the children’s learning within the wider curriculum we offer. The themes of nurture, faith, inspiration and success thread through our reading curriculum and it has been designed to ensure that pupils have opportunities to develop a love of reading. We enable all pupils to gain a thirst for reading a range of genres and participating in discussions about the books; exploring the language used by different authors and the impact the written words have on the reader.  We teach reading so our children are able to articulate what being a reader involves: having a passion for words and books, creating images in their minds and being able to read as a writer, with fluency, expression and prosody.

Book-rich Curriculum

Our ‘book-rich’ curriculum ensures that the National Curriculum and Early Years Foundation Stage Framework can be delivered in an engaging and exciting way. We use a variety of high-quality texts that have been collated to uncover a range of genre during their time at Sapperton.  We provide a progression of inspirational authors through the year groups that encompass relevant themes, including the Christian values of love, honour and trust; cover a diverse world of characters and authors, and expose the children to different sorts of narratives in cross-curricula genre. They have been selected based on acquisition of vocabulary, protagonists and themes. Because of this, the children develop an even greater understanding of the world around them. Our reading spine offers a bank of core and supportive texts, fiction, non-fiction and poetry.

The National Curriculum and Early Years Foundation Stage Framework are rooted in our teaching and our units of work are inclusive and accessible for all children. There is a clear progression of skills and knowledge through the year groups. The two elements that make competent readers, decoding (word reading) and comprehension, help build the reading offer and are fundamental to learning in all areas of the curriculum. Children’s skills in decoding are developed through the teaching of Phonic. The threads of fluency, vocabulary and oracy also permeate through our curriculum with opportunities to share ideas about reading, and giving children the time to read aloud to adults and peers.  

Reading for Pleasure

We prioritise reading and create an atmosphere of pleasure around it. Each classroom sets aside space and time to help achieve this culture; work is displayed across the school, and children are able to discuss the pleasure they have taken from experiences of reading.

Children are encouraged to read at home and the home-school relationship fosters Sapperton’s belief that reading is pleasurable and inclusive; something that everyone can access and enjoy. Children with SEND confidently access our curriculum and adaptations are made for them to be inspired and succeed alongside their peers.

Our Reading Curriculum

Reading is taught daily across all classes. In Key Stage 1, Early Reading is delivered through daily phonics lessons, with a clear focus on new phonemes and their corresponding graphemes, alongside group reading sessions in which this new learning is applied. These sessions also emphasise vocabulary development and comprehension. Throughout the school day, children regularly engage with stories, and high‑quality texts are used to enrich all areas of the curriculum within our provision.

In Key Stage 2, shared reading lessons are vocabulary‑rich and explicitly teach the skills of retrieval, prediction, interpretation, summarising, and explanation. We use extracts from high‑quality fiction and non‑fiction texts to expose pupils to a broad range of genres. During whole‑class reading sessions, these skills are practised and refined through in‑depth discussions about themes that emerge as we explore a high‑quality text together.

Fluency and oracy underpin all of our reading lessons; pupils are given frequent opportunities to read aloud. Teachers model the use of intonation and prosody to convey meaning, and pupils are encouraged to apply these techniques in their own reading.

Each Friday, classes take part in Book Club. During this time, every child has the opportunity to engage in one‑to‑one discussions with their teacher, sharing insights about what they have read that week. Pupils are also encouraged to recommend books to their peers and to support one another in developing a love of reading.