Reading
At All Saints, we believe that reading is an essential life skill – not only to enable the growth of independence and confidence in our children but also to encourage life-long learning and enjoyment.
We are committed to fostering a love of reading through the provision of a rich environment of varied fiction and non-fiction texts. Our school library holds well over 6000 books and the texts that we use as part of our reading and writing journeys are selected to inspire, challenge and excite our children.
During their time at All Saints, our children learn to read increasingly challenging texts with accuracy, fluency and confidence. They become comfortable with talking about texts, looking for the deeper meaning and making links between books that they have read. We have a full programme of phonics teaching and small group work to ensure that all children have every opportunity to achieve this and develop their own love of reading.
A high-quality text supports every writing journey with additional text extracts adding both challenge and interest. Guided reading sessions explore both fiction and non-fiction texts often resulting in deep and rich discussion. This often leads the children wanting to know more and the books end up being in high demand!
In addition, as a school we are fully trained in delivering the initiative `Let’s Think in English`. Developed at King’s College London, this is devised to encourage deeper thinking skills including inference, deduction, analysis and resilience with more ambitious texts. The resulting development in thinking skills are then used by the children in other subjects across the curriculum.
A love of reading is also actively encouraged through initiatives such as reading cafes, author visits, involvement in Hampshire Book Awards, provision of year group reading lists, World Book Day activities and valuable story time with class teachers. Our Reading for Pleasure tab shares more details about many of these activities.
Through the teaching of reading, we help to prepare our children to become life-long learners but also to be able to enjoy the variety of different worlds to which reading can transport each and everyone of us.
“Sometimes I travel by bike, sometimes by car, train or plane, but my favourite way to travel is by book.
It’s cool, and there are no limits.”
Benjamin Zephaniah
“Books fire your imagination and your creativity and take you traveling through time and space and into the hearts and minds of other people”
Cressida Cowell
