Reading at Southborough

At Southborough, we value reading as a key life skill. By the time children leave Southborough, they should be confident selecting and reading a wide range of material and enjoy regularly reading for pleasure.

Our readers are equipped with the tools to tackle unfamiliar vocabulary and material. They are able to recommend books to their peers and enjoy reading a wide range of genres, including non-fiction. Children enjoy participating in book talk, including evaluating an author’s use of language and how this can affect the reader. We encourage our pupils to see themselves as discerning readers and to be confident in discussing not only whether they enjoy a text but also the extent to which they agree with it. We ensure the books we read as part of our reading curriculum and in our books corners are representative of our wider school community and reflect the diversity of our children's lived experiences. 

How we teach Reading

We teach reading comprehension through reading lessons. Each half term, we aim for children to read and analyse a fiction, a non-fiction or a poetry text. Reading lessons include:

• An element of decoding (blending to read words)

• An element of prosody (reading with feeling)

• A close look at key vocabulary that children may be unfamiliar with

• Unpicking the key skill focus for that lesson (retrieval, inference, prediction, summarising, vocabulary, making links)

• Modelled answering of questions

• Opportunities to apply the day's reading skills independently

• A weekly reading for pleasure session

In addition to our reading lessons, we also provide children:

• Opportunities to read for pleasure

• Phonics lessons or interventions 

• Storytime timetabled for fifteen minutes a day, at least three times a week.

• Regular, open ended discussions about stories and books.

• 15 minute weekly assembly focused on stories chosen by the children

• Opportunities to read and discuss a wide read of genres including poetry and non-fiction (including weekly newspapers to ensure children are aware of local, national and global issues).

We also have a number of reading enrichment activities, including:

• The opportunity to visit Petts Wood or Southborough Lane library.

• Visits from authors and poets throughout the school year.

• Celebrations for World Book Week including a book fair, competitions and lots of amazing costumes!

In addition, 1:1 reading is put in place for children that need extra practise. Books that the children take home are carefully chosen to match the children’s interests and their level of fluency.