Reading

At Portfield we love reading! We believe that reading is essential to enable children to access and understand all areas of the curriculum and their future life. We celebrate their successes and achievements through certificates, badges and reading related prizes. In school we teach reading through three different strands - phonics (Sounds-Write), comprehension and fluency (Whole Class Reading) and reading for pleasure (Accelerated Reader). During the school day, time is devoted to these three strands of reading to ensure that our children become knowledgeable and enthusiastic readers (see our reading timetable by clicking the blue box). Our teachers also read high-quality texts to the children every day so that they have to opportunity to listen to wonderful stories as well as read them for themselves. 

When our children are first learning to read, they read phonics books, from the Dandelion Phonics reading programme, that match the sounds they have already learnt during their Sounds-Write lessons. These books include words that the children are able to decode (break down) using the sounds they have learnt in their phonics sessions. This enables them to feel successful and helps them to become independent readers. Whilst the children are learning the basics of reading through phonics, they will also read high-quality picture books from our school library to encourage them to truly love books and stories. 

Using the National Curriculum for reading, we have developed a comprehensive 'Reading Progression of Knowledge and Skills' document to ensure that pupils build on their reading knowledge and skills over time. 

Well-researched reading spines (see the 'Whole Class Reading' page) also provide our children access to high-quality, diverse texts that get progressively more complex as they move through the school. Throughout each topic in our curriculum, the children learn from, enjoy and imitate the style of these books in order to master the skills of reading for themselves. 

To demonstrate the importance we place on reading, our children also read every day at home, which is recorded in their reading records. We also recommend that parents of our younger pupils share a range of books with their child, allowing them to access and enjoy information or stories that they are interested in, but may not be able to read themselves. These books are chosen by the children from their class library. 

For further information about our reading approaches, please see our 'Approach to Reading' document or select one of the reading areas below: