DEVELOPING A LOVE OF READING
At Northside Primary School, we know a child’s reading experience is fundamental to the development of imagination, understanding of life and development of a positive growth mindset for life.

Reading is much more than the books which come home from school, it is in everything we do! Therefore, we encourage reading throughout our school day and curriculum here at Northside. We embrace reading and celebrate books in all areas of school life! We read books about difference and delve into a range of authors throughout the children’s journey with us. Different genres are covered in English lessons and children are constantly practising their reading skills across all subjects. Dual language books are used to promote our language skills and allow children to experience familiar stories in different languages.

At Northside Primary school we strive to nurture the love of reading in every child through our reading rich curriculum, quality reading resources and stimulating environment. We aim to provide:

  • All children with the skills and strategies to read with confidence, fluency and understanding
  • Create a positive reading culture where children enjoy reading, want to read regularly and discuss their reading
  • Encourage reading outside the classroom through forging strong links with home including the Strive for Five program
  • Establish a love of books where children choose to read for pleasure

WHOLE CLASS READ
Whole class reading is an approach to teaching Guided Reading to the whole class rather than teaching reading in set groups. All children in each class have a copy of the class text to read and follow along with. Each class study a range of texts across the year, including classic novels and diverse stories. Children take part in a Whole Class Reading session at least 2 times a week. We focus on Whole Class Reading to support the learning of key reading skills: vocabulary, infer, predict, explain, retrieve and summarise. This approach has had a great impact on reading lessons at Northside – children are hooked on their class stories!

PHONICS
Phonics is the beginning of children’s body of knowledge, skills and understanding and the foundations of enabling a child to develop the essential life skills of reading and writing. At Northside, we aim to teach high quality phonics to ensure that every child has the best start possible in reading and writing, to enable them to become confident, independent, all round learners. Phonics is taught discretely and daily at a brisk pace following the Nationally accredited scheme Read, Write Inc. Phonics is continuously assessed using children’s application and development of phonic knowledge. Children’s progress is monitored half termly to inform subsequent planning and next steps.

EARLY READING
Early reading begins with a love of nursery rhymes, songs, poems and jingles. Children begin to repeat words or phrases. Children are encouraged to take note of the environment around them noticing logos, illustrations, marks and print. As they begin to listen to stories with increasing attention and recall, children can suggest how stories might end and begin to have an understanding of how stories are structured.

In nursery, children are given picture books. This allows the children to understand how to hold a book, understand its title and they can discuss the pictures with family members. As the children’s phonics fluency greatens the children are given simple CVC books they can decode. Once children are confident with most phonemes and digraphs the children then begin our book banded scheme such as Oxford Reading Tree and supplemented by a range of quality reading schemes. We have a vast range of books for the children to read in order to encourage their love for reading.

HOME/ INDEPENDENT READING
Every individual child has a school reading book that is book banded to match their reading ability. Children change their books when they have finished them. There are a range of fiction, non-fiction and poetry books in each book band. We have a huge collection of books to match the interests of children. As a child’s reading improves they move through the book bands. The books children have read are logged in reading records.

STRIVE FOR FIVE
Strive for 5 is a weekly reading challenge that is set across Northside Primary School. The aim of Strive for 5 is to encourage pupils to develop a regular schedule of reading outside of school. Strive for 5 is to support the development and progression of readers at Northside. Teachers will check reading records in order to move children along the Strive for Five chart, if children reach 5 stars they will be rewarded with 5 Points. If children are able to read more than 5 times a week, they are entered into the Above and Beyond raffle! Children receive one raffle ticket each time they read on top of the five times needed for Strive for Five. These raffle tickets are drawn during the Star of the Week assembly and the winner from each class can collect a prize from Mrs McDowell’s office!