Reading

Our Christian Values and Distinctiveness, alongside our School Mission Statement of ‘Learning, Growing and Inspiring through God’s Love and Grace’, are at the heart of our curriculum and all that we do at Samlesbury.

Reading at Samlesbury

Reading lies at the heart of the curriculum at Samlesbury. We are dedicated to enabling our pupils to become lifelong readers and we believe reading is key for academic success.

The children love visiting the library to explore the all books on offer. FOSS (Friends of Samlesbury Primary School) are active in supporting the upkeep of our library and parent helpers regularly come in to help run our library. Year 5 & 6 pupils maintain the library and ensure it stays looking as good as it does!

By the time children leave Samlesbury Church of England Primary School, they are competent readers who can recommend books to their peers, have a thirst for reading a range of genres including poetry, and participate in discussions about books, including evaluating an author’s use of language and the impact this can have on the reader. They can also read books to enhance their knowledge and understanding of all subjects across the curriculum, and communicate their research to a wider audience.

Children take part in regular whole class reading lessons, where they are exposed to a range of different texts and can demonstrate their understanding and thinking behind these.
In Key Stage 2 children take part in Accelerated Reader tests as they work their way to achieving their target which is set for each individual at the start of every term. This document provides more information about Accelerated Reader - Accelerated Reader Information.
There is a daily time for the class novel/story across school. This is when the teacher models reading to the children and is a time to explore texts together, for example: unpick story themes, character decisions and discuss language for effect.
Each classroom has a selection of books which are directly linked to the class topic. This offers opportunities for pupils to apply their reading skills across the curriculum.
Children have the opportunity to take part in ‘Reading Buddies’, in which children mix with other children from different year groups and share a book together.
Children in key stage 2 who are not yet ‘confident readers’, are given regular intervention sessions using a phonics support program such as Bounce Back Phonics or Fast Track Phonics, based on "Letters and Sounds" or additional reading groups are planned for to support reading skills and understanding.

Reading at home

"The more that you read,

the more things you will know.

The more that you learn,

the more places you’ll go."

(Dr Seuss, “I Can Read With My Eyes Shut!”)

Every child at Samlesbury has at least one reading book, which they select from our school library, from the class bookshelves or from home. Children are given the time to read and to listen to stories at school. They are also strongly encouraged to read with grown-ups at home, and in Reception to Year 4, a written record of home-reading is kept. In Key Stage 2, the pupils are encouraged to become more independent, gradually taking more responsibility for the completion of their reading records, until they are keeping their own records.

Children who are learning to read, generally in Reception and year 1, will have a phonics based reading book. This book is selected to ensure that it only contains phonemes (letter sounds) that the child has been taught to read. Children also have a "read for pleasure book" which they will take home to share. It may contain tricky words and sounds. In order to support parents and carers in hearing their child read, we welcome those with children in Reception specifically (but it is open to all other year groups too) to an annual "Phonics Evening" for parents as well as provide all new starter families with an information booklet and links to websites and apps to support families.

Parents and carers often ask what sort of questions they should pose to their children as they're reading at home, in order to develop their comprehension skills. We suggest "reading with ERIC" - here's what we mean:

ERIC stands for:

E: Explaining new vocabulary

R: Retrieving information

I: Interpreting information

C: Choice (thinking about the choices made by the author/director/artist)

read-with-eric-poetry.pptx