At Gaddesden Row School we believe that reading should be a fundamental part of childhood and a skill which should be developed to support lifelong learning.
Our aim is to develop and embed a strong, sustainable reading culture within the school community. Confident and competent readers will foster a love of reading through a rich and varied experience of texts, in which they are empowered to exercise freedoms of choice and independence.

Phonics

The Department for Education and Skills Primary National Strategy’s “Letters and Sounds” systematic synthetics phonics programme is followed throughout Reception and Key Stage 1. This scheme teaches and supports children through the phases of phonics learning.

Our approaches to reading

The opportunities, organisation and provision for the teaching and learning of reading are as follows:

Reading Buddies is a keenly anticipated session in the pupil’s weekly plan across the school, where children in our younger classes are paired up with the older children and together they share a book.

Guided reading is small group instruction in which the teacher guides students through a text that is at the children's instructional reading level.  The role of the teacher is crucial in guided reading. Guided reading is planned, focused instruction. The ultimate goal is to foster independent readers.

Research shows that the amount of time children spend in independent reading is the best predictor of their overall literacy and language achievement. Reading independently for sustained periods helps children build fluency and become self-reliant readers.

Shared reading is an interactive reading experience that occurs when students join in or share the reading of a book or other text while guided and supported by a teacher. The teacher explicitly models the skills of proficient readers, including reading with fluency and expression.

As the children progress through the years we hope to inspire them to read a wider variety of more challenging texts, plus interacting with books at a deeper level. They are taught to focus more upon the higher order skills of comprehension, inference and deduction.

Resources A book banded reading scheme operates across the school which comprises of a range of different schemes. Children progress through banded books with a varied diet of books to become free readers.

Parents/carers 

Reading with your child and to your child for just 5-10 minutes every day can have a massive impact on their learning. They don't have to read a book - it can be a comic, a magazine, a newspaper or an internet page.

Children are given Reading Records to help us keep track of how much reading the children are doing at home with a family member or carer. If you are unsure about how to use them, please ask your child's teacher and they will help you.