Reading at Swinton Fitzwilliam Primary School

 

Vision

We believe reading is the foundation of all learning. We immerse the children daily in an engaging reading environment and provide them with many opportunities to learn to read, read to learn and foster their love of books and reading: in phonics and guided reading (FS - Y1), in whole-class reading (Y2 - Y6) , in the form of story time, when reading across the curriculum and when reading books selected from class libraries. Our reading curriculum is carefully structured to enable our pupils to develop as independent readers who will:

• In the earlier years, use the phonic strategies taught to decode new words and develop into fluent readers.
• Be able to navigate the texts they read, understand what they have read, make inferences, summarise and predict, form opinions about themes, character and plot, and, overtime, become more aware of author intent.
• Develop the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information, and use reading as a vehicle for expanding their understanding of wider curriculum subjects.
• Benefit from a wide reading diet of ambitious, high-quality texts, including fiction, non-fiction, poetry and songs which expand their vocabulary and help them develop culturally, emotionally, intellectually, socially and spiritually.
• Confidently discuss what they have read and listen to others to expand their own knowledge and understanding.
• Use role-play and other drama techniques to identify with and explore characters and language and listen to and perform poetry and plays.
• Understand the interconnectedness of reading and writing.

How we teach reading

Please find more information below regarding how we teach reading here at Swinton Fitzwilliam.

Knowledge

Our curriculum aims to equip pupils with the substantive and disciplinary knowledge they need to be able to interpret a range of texts and foster a love of reading.

Key Concepts

At Swinton Fitzwilliam, pupils will develop a deep understanding of our key concepts which have been carefully considered and identified as the core knowledge and skills required to successfully achieve in all aspects of reading. The key concepts are revisited and developed, through studying different texts, as the pupils move through school to ensure the knowledge and skills are firmly embedded within the long term memory. Our progression map illustrates our expectation that, by the end of primary school, children will know and understand these key concepts and have the reading skills to enter KS3 confidently.