Statement of Intent

By the end of Year 6 we aspire for children at Grove CE Primary school to:

• read easily, fluently and with good understanding
• develop the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information
• acquire a wide vocabulary, an understanding of grammar and knowledge of the linguistic conventions for reading, writing and spoken language
• appreciate our rich and varied literary heritage
• express opinions, articulate feelings and formulate responses to a range of texts both fiction and non-fiction using appropriate technical vocabulary
• have fostered an interest in words and their meanings, and to develop a growing vocabulary in both spoken and written form
• enjoy and engage with and understand a range of text types and genres
• understand the pleasure that reading and writing can create

We believe that reading is the key that unlocks the whole curriculum, therefore, the ability to efficiently decode is essential. We use the Read, Write, Inc. Phonics programme to teach our children the core skills of segmenting and blending to start them on their ‘reading journey’. Read write inc phonics is an inclusive programme for all children and is the clear and systematic approach to the teaching of phonics that is used across our EYFS and Key Stage 1 classes.   Through the delivery of daily Read, Write, Inc. Phonics lessons, we aim to teach children to:

•  Apply the skill of blending phonemes in order to read words. 
• Segment words into phonemes in order to spell words. 
• Learn that segmenting and blending words are reversible processes.
• Read high frequency words that do not conform to regular phonetic patterns. 
• Read texts and words that are within their phonic capabilities as early as possible. 
• Decode texts effortlessly so all their resources can be used to comprehend what they read.

 

Read, write, inc phonics is a clear and systematic scheme of work where each lesson builds on the last. It is a spiral curriculum that provides children with endless opportunities for rehearsal and application of prior  learning whilst regularly introducing new learning. This provides children with the solid foundations that they need to go on to be successful lifelong readers who have a love for reading.  In conjunction with daily Read, Write, Inc. Phonics lessons, children are exposed to a wide range of high-quality texts across the curriculum. This ensures that children’s love of reading grows as their confidence and phonics knowledge increases. Click the logo above to find out more about how to support your child at home.

 We provide daily systematic synthetic phonics teaching to enable our children to become successful readers and writers. We have adopted the Read, Write, Inc Phonics programme to support consistency and progression in the teaching of early reading. This programme is designed for pupils in Year R to Year 2 but can be used to rapidly catch-up reading for older pupils, through the Fresh Start programme.

Although Phonics is the main way in which early reading is taught, we nurture a love of reading and books through RWI and English lessons, using high quality reading texts to allow pupils to fully engage in reading for pleasure. Furthermore, we carefully develop recall and comprehension skills, using tailored ‘find it’ and ‘prove it’ questions. 

 

Reading in KS2

Children in Key Stage 2 who have completed RWI and are fluent and confident in their phonics knowledge progress onto the OUP banded book system, which they read in school. These provide high quality, exciting and engaging texts at just the right level to encourage and challenge. You can find out more by clicking the Reading Tree logo. Children read this to an adult in school. Children are also free to choose books from the library which could be at their reading level, a picture book or one that is more challenging and is read to children by parents and carers at home to encourage reading for pleasure.

Once fluent in decoding, children in Key Stage 2 have a daily guided reading lesson, which focuses on one of the strands of VIPERS (Vocabulary, Inference, Prediction, Explanation, Retrieve/Respond, Summarise/Sequence). As readers become more fluent, we move towards embedding and deepening reading skills through a whole class texts or extracts, in guided reading sessions. This is where pupils read whole books or extracts, looking in-depth at: characters, setting, inference, deduction and prediction. This approach nurtures a broadening of vocabulary and understanding the writers’ craft in much more detail. In turn, this feeds into pupil writing skills, reflecting on how authors write. We also ensure that children are regularly reading across the curriculum, for example reading non-fiction books or websites about different subjects such as science, RE or history.

Enhancements

Reading plays an integral part in building children’s spirituality at Grove. Reading can be a connection to something that is bigger than ourselves, increasing our empathy and helping children to ask questions about their lives and experiences, and recognising the rich inner lives of others. Reading is a conduit to awe and wonder, whether this is through non-fiction books sharing the wonders of the world, or a story that opens children’s eyes to other people and nature, encouraging empathy and care. It is also a fundamental skill in appreciating the stories of the Bible and other religious texts.

 

Our new library was opened by local author Chris Douch in 2025. It is important to us to stock both this area and our class libraries with modern, relevant and diverse books that appeal to the children. We aim for our children to have books that serve as both windows to the wider world and mirrors of their experience and everyday life. 

 

 

 

To foster a love for reading, children are challenged to collect ‘Reading Miles’ each week. Children record their reads at home and these are tallied for our Celebration Assembly where children achievements are recognised through a Bronze, Silver, Gold or Platinum certificate. Cumulatively, classes are rewarded with a brand-new class book when they attain the highest number of reads out of the whole school each week.

 

 

 

In Key Stage 2, all children have the opportunity to take part in the nationally run ‘Poetry By Heart’ competition, which encourages reading and learning poetry for pleasure. World Book Day is an annual event at Grove CE Primary School which has included: book swaps, reading scrap books, virtual author visits and writing letters to famous authors too. We arrange annual visits to Grove Library to encourage reading at home, and children take part in the summer and winter holiday reading challenges organised by the library. To further encourage reading for pleasure, we have multiple author visits each year where books are available to buy and borrow, as well as regular book recommendations in our weekly newsletter.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Oxford picture book and chapter books author Anna Kemp ran workshops for our school about character description, and was interviewed by some of our keen readers!

 

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We regularly invite authors into school in person to give talks and workshops. In the past two years we have met the author and illustrator Mini Grey, picture-book and fantasy writer Anna Kemp, graphic novelist John Patrick Green and local writers Robin Bennett and Chris Douch who opened our new library. This has been supplemented by online talks from numerous authors of boos that form part of our curriculum, including Peter Brown, Harriet Muncaster, Berlie Doherty, Elle McNicoll, poets Alex Wharton and Michael Rosen.

Book Recommendations

Visit Love Reading 4 Kids for recommendations, extracts of first chapters, and 25% of the cover price of any books you buy donated back to improve our school library.

Reading Online

There are lots of fantastic apps and websites that can help you practise your reading at home for free. Teach Your Monster to Read is free to access through their website (ask your child's teacher for their username, usually their first name) or you can choose to buy the app. Once you are fluent in phonics, the next stage, "Reading Is Fun", takes you through a town filled with books to read.