Reading

Reading is at the heart of everything we do at Hemingford Grey Primary School. It forms the foundations for our independent learning model and supports our ethos of all the children being readers. We try to develop a love of reading through a structured phonics and reading programme in Reception and KS1 leading on to a reciprocal reading approach in KS2. This is alongside promoting reading for pleasure and providing multiple opportunities for this.  

Phonics

We use the 'FFT Success for All' phonics programme which has been accredited and validated by the Department for Education. This follows a consistent, systematic approach and introduces phonemes progressively throughout the year. Phonics begins when the children enter school in Reception with opportunities to practice the sounds taught throughout the day.  

Reading in Reception and Key Stage 1 

In Reception and KS1, children continue to follow the FFT scheme, which links reading books to the children’s decodable level. Children will read a book linked specifically to the phoneme being learned that week. During these sessions, children have the opportunity to develop their decoding skills alongside building comprehension skills and vocabulary and language development.  

Reading in Key Stage 2 

In KS2 children have a reciprocal reading approach to reading where the children develop their reading skills under 4 main areas. These are clarifying, summarising, predicting and questioning. These areas are then broken down further to include vocabulary and language development.  

If a child leaves KS1 and is not yet confident in phonics, this provision will continue into KS2 to meet the needs of the children.  

Reading for Pleasure

Reading for pleasure is an imperative part of our day at Hemingford Grey. We pride ourselves on providing multiple opportunities for reading throughout the day. Book corners in Reception and KS1 are inviting and host a range of books including fiction, non-fiction, poetry and quality picture books. Children have access to our book exchange on the playground, called the 'Reading Shed'. It is accessible for all children to take books to read at home for pleasure. We aim for all children to see themselves as readers and find the type of literature or author they find enjoyment from.

We also have a developing set of core books in each phase which are read to the children, ensuring they are accessing a well-rounded bank of literature. Teachers at Hemingford take any opportunity to read to the children and children have adequate time given over to reading alone or sharing books with their peers.  

Home/School Partnership

We believe that the relationship between home and school is an important one to ensure that parents and carers have the understanding and knowledge to best support their children with reading at home. In Reception and KS1, a parents and carers ‘Come to Learn’ session is held at the beginning of the year to discuss early reading and how phonics is delivered in school with the hope they can support their learning alongside us. In KS2, a reading ‘Come to Learn’ session is delivered to parents/carers about the approach to reading and comprehension expectations as they progress.

Parents/carers are invited to visit school weekly into Reception for a reading for pleasure session to share and promote the importance of a look of books. Further up the school volunteers support reading by coming in and sharing texts.