At Shakespeare Primary School we have a relentless focus and prioritise reading. This ensures that younger children and those at the early stages of reading gain the phonics knowledge and language comprehension necessary to read, and the skills to communicate, gives them the foundations for future learning.

At Shakespeare we have our School Reading Minister and our School Library Minister to support our reading. 

Phonics and Reading Lessons

Reading is a core part of our daily timetable at Shakespeare.  Every child attends their reading lesson at 9am daily.  To ensure that early reading is our priority all of our teaching assistants are deployed to deliver small group phonics sessions. Pupils in the Early Years and Key Stage 1 begin their day with Read, Write Inc. phonics lessons.  At Shakespeare School we have a  rigorous and sequential approach to the reading curriculum which develops pupils’ fluency, confidence and enjoyment in reading. At all stages, reading attainment is assessed and gaps are addressed quickly and effectively for all pupils. All pupils, who are early readers, access lessons that specifically target their areas of need through the use of RWInc and they are re-grouped every six weeks in order to provide the right balance of support and challenge.  All of our KS2 early readers take part in daily RWInc lessons with their KS peers. If additional interventions are required for any child they will partake in 1-1 Tutoring. This ensures all children are able to succeed and make rapid progress and achieve the high ambitions of the curriculum.  

Whole class reading

As children complete the phonics program they begin daily whole class reading sessions where they read widely through our class Super 6 books which are appropriate to their age as well as non-fiction and poetry texts. This enables all pupils to develop a strong understanding of different books, genres and text types whilst continually improving their reading fluency.

All whole-class reading lessons are planned so that a variety of genres are taught and re-visited on two-week cycles.  This ensures that all pupils become familiar will specific text structures, language, authorial voice and rich vocabulary.  

Timetabling 

Our timetables are flooded with reading. Each of our reading sessions are carefully timetabled to ensure these are a priority in the morning and after lunch. Below is an example timetable evidencing reading every day. 

Leadership release 

Our phonics and reading programs are lead by our Head of School and our Deputy Headteacher. This allows for daily monitoring and coaching of the sessions to ensure they are being taught by reading experts. 

Talk Through Stories and Tales Toolkit 

In Early Year through to Year 1 the children are taught using tales toolkit and the RWInc talk-through stories. This develops the children's understanding of stories and their structure as well as develop a love of storytelling. 

Reading in every agenda 

Reading is a priority in every agenda. It is included each week in our Round Up that is shared with parents and families and our assemblies where we look at our reading incentives each week. We discuss reading at each of our staff briefings and within our pupil progress meetings. 

Sharing books

Reading is our priority and we want all children to have a love for reading.  We therefore make sure that we read to our children every day - no matter where they are in the school.  The stories and non-fictions books have been carefully selected and we hope that by listening to books being read, children will then be inspired to select from a wide range of books when reading independently.