Reading Intent

At Green Park Community Primary School, we believe that a passion for reading and a love of books is central to our educational ethos. We want every child to discover the joy of reading high-quality children's literature, exploring books by a range of authors and experiencing a world of imagination. We see reading as much more than just a skill—it’s a window to the wider world that helps children develop vocabulary, gain new experiences, and learn about diverse cultures and ideas. Through quality-first teaching and a carefully sequenced range of strategies, we nurture the behaviours that allow our children to become discerning and critical readers. Our central aim is to ensure that every child becomes an enthusiastic, fluent, competent, and independent reader, enabling them to access the rest of the curriculum with confidence. We also place a strong emphasis on building home-school partnerships, encouraging parents and carers to support and celebrate reading at home.

Implementation

Drawing on current research, our reading curriculum is both progressive and structured, evolving alongside our children as they grow. Each year group employs a variety of approaches and teaching strategies, selected specifically to meet the needs of our diverse learners. In our classrooms, reading is brought to life through a mix of shared and guided reading sessions, where children have regular opportunities to listen to stories read aloud with expression and to engage in discussions about the text. We also prioritise independent reading, setting aside dedicated quiet time for children to explore a rich, structured range of texts that cater to their ability levels.

Our extensive reading resources include a well-stocked literary environment featuring fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and reference materials. Through our book system, we ensure that reading materials are graded to meet age-related expectations. Early Years and KS1 pupils start with decodable, phonetically matched texts that build on their foundational skills, while older children have access to a broader range of books that challenge their comprehension and encourage independent choice. Our medium-term schemes of learning ensure that teaching remains balanced, with varied strategies that promote both teacher-led and child-led learning. Regular home-school reading activities, such as daily Reading Records, further support this approach, encouraging parents to actively participate in their child’s reading journey.

Impact

The impact of our reading programme is clear in the way our children engage with texts and express their ideas. Our robust assessment and tracking systems help us monitor each child’s progress, ensuring that they:

• Develop a genuine enthusiasm for reading and are motivated to explore new ideas.
• Enjoy listening to and sharing stories, fostering both fluency and confidence.
• Employ a range of decoding strategies and demonstrate an understanding of diverse texts.
• Read aloud with appropriate expression and intonation, enhancing their comprehension and enjoyment.
• Make steady progress from their starting points, achieving excellent outcomes at each key stage.

At Green Park, we are incredibly proud of our children’s growth in reading. By fostering a vibrant reading culture and building strong partnerships with families, we are laying a solid foundation for lifelong learning and success.

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Intent

Books allow us to travel to wonderful places, experience different cultures, go back in time and explore new and imaginary worlds. At Green Park, we believe that every child should be given the opportunity to experience the joy and wonder that books provide us. We strive to develop the reading skills of every pupil, so that they can become fluent and avid readers and use these skills to thrive. We prioritise giving the children every opportunity to access a wide variety of literature and texts that challenge, inform and inspire them. The future of our pupils matter greatly, so we aim to provide the best education to enable them to become successful in both the present and the future. We offer a broad curriculum in reading that utilises the wide range of texts that are accessible to us and we enrich our pupils’ lives with language, knowledge and wonder. We follow a holistic approach to reading to support the development of our pupils.

We aim to:

• Provide quality first teaching of phonics and early reading with clear fidelity across the school.
• Ensure all teachers hold high expectations for every child and provide high quality, well planned lessons in reading (using Little Wandle reading lessons until phonics has been completed).
• Ensure our children have an appropriate reading speed and level of fluency.
• Provide a rich and stimulating reading environment.
• Provide regular ‘Reading for pleasure’ opportunities.
• Enable children to read with confidence, fluency, understanding and enjoyment.
• Build children’s skills in inference and deduction.
• Make accurate assessment and use data to inform future planning.
• Make appropriate provision so every child can make progress in reading.

 

Implementation:

We aim to enable all children to:

• Learn to read following the Little Wandle Letters and sounds revised scheme.
• Read for interest, information and enjoyment.
• Read a range of texts using a range of media.
• Read regularly at home and in school.
• Develop confidence in their ability to select reading material independently.

 

READING OPPORTUNITIES

At Green Park, we strive to provide numerous opportunities for children to access books both independently and as part of structured lessons in order for them to consistently practise key reading skills and to build a love for reading. We provide numerous opportunities for them to do this:

Each week, there will be a separate time, for each class, dedicated to ‘Reading for Pleasure’. This will be a time where the children can choose what they would like to read and read it in an appropriate place. At the end of each Reading for Pleasure session the children will be able to share what they have read with their peers.

Early readers read phonetically decodable books as part of their weekly reading lessons over the course of the week.

Early readers also take home a sharing book to enjoy with their parents.

Children take home their independent reading book to share with their family.

All children have independent reading time at the beginning of the school day.

Children can read for pleasure at break and lunch times.

Reading opportunities are provided in topic work set out by our Cornerstones curriculum.

Every class teacher designates time daily to read a text for pleasure with their class. They are encouraged to regularly select high quality texts taken from a carefully selected reading and poetry spine.

Every classroom has a book corner where children can choose a book to read and enjoy at appropriate times.

After-school book clubs held weekly.

Reading assemblies.

Reading themed days including: World Book Day, author visits, Roald Dahl Day, Poetry week.

 

Phonics and early reading:

Please see individual reading policy for Phonics and Early reading.

Children in Year 2 and above, who have not completed the phonics programme, will have regular phonics interventions and reading practise with the class teacher. Interventions will follow the Little Wandle catch up programme.

Following on from Little Wandle early reading, children will be assessed on the Little Wandle reading fluency program. They will follow this until they reach an appropriate reading speed and level of fluncy.

 

Following on from Little Wandle fluency, children at Green Park move on to the Accelerated Reading programme where we aim to guide our pupils through a levelled programme that engages them with a wide range of classic and contemporary texts, assesses through simple and engaging quizzes, and collects data that we use to continuously challenge them and set appropriate targets. Children work through the accelerated reader levels, starting from their own point of entry based on their initial Star Reader Test. The star reader test will give each child a reading level range, based on the score of their assessment. Each child will then choose books across their ZPD reading range. Children choose their own text from the school library. After each text is read, the children will complete a short comprehension test and receive a percentage score based on the questions they answered correctly. We set the expectation as a school, that the children should gain a score of at least 80%. The star reading text is repeated at the end of each term to assess progress in independent reading and to ensure that the children are reading at an appropriate level.

TEACHING OF WHOLE CLASS READING (See Whole Class Reading Policy)

Inclusion and adaptive teaching:

 

All children must have regular access to teaching of reading, appropriate to their stage of development. Challenge for all is integral to our teaching and we aim to encourage all pupils to reach their full potential through the provision of varied opportunities. Reading resources must be adapted to aid children’s learning.

 

Impact

Assessment of progress is crucial in effective learning and progress in reading:

• Each child is levelled according to their current phonics level, moving onto their reading level according to Accelerated Reader.
• Teachers track pupil progress in reading each term to ensure the assessment information is up to date.
• Progress is tracked through Little Wandle (for early reading), in lesson assessments, Star Reading assessment and reading comprehension tests.

It is the role of the subject leader to support and work with colleagues on any aspect of the Reading Policy, to assist with planning and resourcing where needed, to keep up to date with and inform staff of new developments in reading through staff meetings, to hold CPD training for staff when appropriate and to track the progress of the children through monitoring of class and year group books and planning. Pupil and teacher voice will also be used to measure the impact of reading in our school.