Home

Reading

Reading at George Grenville Academy

Our aim is for every child to develop the knowledge, skills and confidence needed to become an independent, fluent reader who enjoys books and recognises the value of reading. We understand that children develop at different rates, so we provide structured teaching, regular opportunities to practise and additional support where needed to ensure that every child can make progress.

Effective reading requires children to develop two closely connected skills: the ability to recognise and read words accurately, and the language and comprehension skills needed to understand what they read. Alongside teaching these essential skills, we encourage children to explore a wide range of books, authors and genres. Through stories, information texts, poetry and other forms of writing, children can broaden their experiences, develop empathy and discover new interests.

We want reading to become a lifelong habit rather than simply a skill children learn at school. By helping children experience success, discover books they love and develop their reading fluency, we aim to nurture confident readers who increasingly read for both pleasure and purpose.

As children progress into Key Stage Two, reading is taught as a whole class, using either whole class texts or extracts, to deliver the focus reading skill. These reading skills are developed throughout Key Stage Two, allowing children to study and appreciate more sophisticated texts across all genres.

Fostering a love of reading

Reading is celebrated and encouraged throughout the year at Grenville. Children can receive birthday books in celebration assemblies and annual events such as Breakfast with a Book are planned into the school calendar. Book Talk sessions are also planned to allow children a time to share books they love and expand their knowledge of authors.

Reading at Home

Developing fluency, confidence and understanding comes with regular practice. This is why our homework from Reception through to Year 6 focuses on the children completing FIVE reads at home each week.

Decodable Readers

If they are still developing decoding skills (being taught to read using phonics), the children will bring home a decodable book that will be closely matched to the phonics they are learning in school. This allows them to practice the skills that they have been taught recently.

Class Readers

Once children are decoding more fluently, they will move to class readers. Class readers are selected from a basket of books that have been carefully selected for the children. They are age appropriate and more challenging in length and content than the decodable readers.

Library Books

We want all our children to develop a love for reading which is why we have carefully selected books from the school main library for each class. This gets updated every term and the pupils can also ask for specific books. All the children can take home a book from the library to read at home. This can be read independently or shared with their adult and read to them.

Recommended Reads

We have put together a list of books that we recommend for each age group. Click on the links below to access a reading list for each year group.

Progression Map

Please click below to view our progression map for Reading