We pride ourselves in celebrating a love of reading throughout school from the moment the pupils arrive until the moment they leave. We encourage pupils to develop a love of reading so that they become life-long readers. It is our aim to ensure that pupils become fluent readers as early as possible. We recognise how crucial this is for pupils to be able to access all areas of the curriculum.

Early reading is based on decoding using phonics. Please see our phonics page for more details on how we support children at different stages to develop their phonics skills .

The Reading Strategy is a trust-wide approach to develop reading comprehension skills alongside prosody, fluency and expression, it takes place every day for a minimum of 35 minutes. It incorporates age-appropriate, challenging texts which vocabulary rich therefore pupils are exposed to text which enables them to respond using a greater range of vocabulary. Each year group has carefully chosen texts which last for up to a term. The texts are supplemented with non-fiction and poetry to ensure a broad range of literature is experienced.

Children in Key Stage 2 also have access to Reading Plus, which is designed to develop fluency and comprehension skills. Reading Plus is a reading intervention program that we have invested in to support pupils in developing their silent reading skills, it also provides staff with a range of information about each pupil as a reader including their preferences, confidence, reading speed and comprehension skills. This supports teachers in identifying areas that pupils require support.

We want the pupils to develop a love of reading. This is encouraged through a variety of ways that include reading challenges – such as Read in a Funny Place competition, our Vocabulary Parade on World Book Day, daily story time, Shakespeare Week, reading area in each class which includes our Top 30 Reads for fiction, non-fiction and there I am, our school library and class texts.

We ensure all of our pupils read widely and often, with fluency and comprehension appropriate to their age. Furthermore, we arrange engaging experiences such as author visits and events to expose the pupils to the joy that reading can bring. We have regular visits from local author Jenny Yorke who opened our library and donated some copies of her new book Walk the Plank to mark the occassion.

In response to Pupil Voice from our School Council we have added books to our Reward Shop.

To find out more about reading in our academy you can contact us on 01274422044 or follow us on X for details of our reading events @RyecroftAcad