English Reading 

Reading at Ashley Down Primary School Aims (intent)

At Ashley Down, we aim to develop active, insightful, and independent readers, who understand the process of reading as sense-making. From the earliest opportunity, reading is presented as the process of understanding a text, where children are encouraged to participate actively in a search for meaning. As children journey through the school, our careful selection of high-quality fiction, non-fiction and poetry aims to develop readers who are empowered and emboldened by the literature they encounter, and can speak confidently and articulately about it. As a result, we believe that our approach instils in our children a life-long passion for reading.

Early reading is taught from the beginning of Reception using a phonics-first approach from our chosen SSP – Unlocking Letters and Sounds. Through their first 2 + years at Ashley Down, children build their phonic knowledge and practise this when reading books which are matched to taught phonic phases.

With this solid foundation, our pupils are equipped with the necessary skills to decode, whilst also developing their fluency as a bridge to comprehension. As they progress through our school, our children are supported to become confident in sharing their thoughts and responses to literature, and begin to take ownership of their emerging reading identities. 

What it looks like here (implementation)

At Ashley Down, we prioritise reading as a valuable vehicle for supporting children’s success across the whole curriculum. From Reception to Year 6, our reading curriculum allows the children to develop progressively and build on prior knowledge, as well as to develop familiarity with different text types and structures. All children are read aloud to and are encouraged to listen attentively to a wide range of stories, non-fiction and poetry. Our high-quality texts have been carefully selected to expose our children to new, rich vocabulary and a variety of literary forms, whilst broadening their cultural horizons and knowledge by exposing them to diverse voices, ideas and experiences.

Following the Early Years Foundation Stage and National Curriculum, we use the phonics teaching progression outlined in Unlocking Letters and Sounds. Children are taught to apply phonic knowledge and skills as the route to decode unknown words, and they practise these skills by reading phonetically decodable texts. During Year 2, children will move from reading a phonetically decodable book to a levelled reading book. We strongly value and encourage parental support, both at home and in school.

In addition to reading widely across the curriculum throughout the school day, reading is explicitly taught in whole-class lessons, guided reading and one-to-one sessions. Fluency is a large component of these lessons, where the children engage in repeated oral reading of a text through paired, echo and choral reading. Our children are also

encouraged to be active in the search for meaning within a given text, and we prioritise the teaching of metacognitive strategies which allow the children to monitor their own comprehension. This is focused around our 8 core reading strategies, which the children employ with increasing autonomy as they progress through the school. At the heart of each reading lesson is the importance of making meaning from the text, and the content of the text is carefully unpicked through discussion and skilful questioning. As a result, reading lessons have a ‘book-club’ atmosphere, where children are encouraged develop their comprehension of a shared text in a positive, calm and open-minded environment.

At Ashley Down, we strongly believe that every child can and must become readers, and any children at risk of falling behind are targeted throughout the day and in interventions to ensure catch-up. Children’s reading fluency, word-reading and comprehension are regularly monitored to ensure that children who need additional support receive it swiftly and effectively. We are also incredibly proud of our Ready to Read programme, which provides 1:1 reading support from our Reading Specialist. This provides identified pupils with a calm, positive and welcoming environment in which to develop key reading skills.

We believe that our approach to teaching reading encourages our children to become independent, skilful, and avid readers, where the literature and skills they are exposed to at Ashley Down will follow them into their adult lives.

For further information regarding our school's curriculum please check the year group pages or alternatively please contact the school office.