The Importance of Reading
Reading is a significant life skill and the development of reading strategies will enable our children to read and write confidently throughout their school career and on into adult life. Evidence suggests, that children who read for enjoyment every day, not only perform better in reading tests than those that don’t, but also develop a broader vocabulary, increased general knowledge and a better understanding of other cultures.
In fact, there’s evidence to suggest that reading for pleasure is more likely to determine whether a child does well at school than their social or economic background. At Lady Margaret Primary School we passionately encourage and require our children to read everyday and aim to nurture a love of reading through carefully selected texts, which inspire and motivate pupils to become life-long readers.
Pupils learn to read easily and fluently through daily phonics in Key Stage one, following the letters and sounds scheme. They read regularly to adults through daily guided reading using the Oxford Reading Tree scheme. In addition to this, they also have essential reads, core texts and home readers.
Pupils develop skills in reading through the understanding of core texts. Our curriculum coverage maps are tailored to meet the needs of our pupils and have been designed in collaboration with the CLPE. In essence, pupils study a book, related to their half termly topic. They often study books which are more challenging than those which they might not be able to read independently. They will use this book as the basis for reading, writing, speaking and listening tasks and links to foundation subjects.
Pupils are encouraged to read widely, through our use of differing class texts, reading passports, library visits, high quality texts, essential reads and home readers. Our classrooms and school reflect a literature rich environment.
Pupils are encouraged to read for pleasure using reading partners, quiet reading time, listening to an adult read, reading passports and the various methods outlined above.
Pupils comprehension skills are assessed through daily guided reading, higher order questioning and throughout all other subjects. Formative reading assessments are completed half termly.
Key Stage two pupils who are making less than expected progress are given extra reading support, through booster classes and the accelerated reader program.
Reading Progression
Recommended Reads
Recommended Reads are a selection of books, we think children should read throughout primary school. Each year group has a different selection. These books can be found in the reading corners in each classroom.
Nursery – Recommended Reads
Reception – Recommended Reads
Year 1 – Recommended Reads
Year 2 – Recommended Reads
Year 3 – Recommended Reads
Year 4 – Recommended Reads
Year 5 – Recommended Reads
Year 6 – Recommended Reads
At Lady Margaret Primary School we teach phonics to help our children learn to read and write. In order to do this successfully they need to love books! The best way to help your child is to read as many books as possible in both English and your child’s home language. Read anything that your child is interested in (including magazines, menus, etc). You don’t have to read all (or any) of the words each time.
The following information sheets will help you in supporting your child with their reading:
Reading Strategies Parent Question Guide
Reading Strategies Prompt Sheet Parent question guide
Guided Reading
Coming soon a selection of pupil’s work based around their essential reads
Pupil Recommended Reads
Pupils are encouraged to recommend their favourite books to the other children in the school, This is for children to share their love of books with each other. The selection grows each week, so look out for recommendations in the newsletter every Friday.
Rishti from 3RM – “The Iron Man” by Ted Hughes
Sheemal from 3PT – “Earl Inkblots Big Night” by Karen Wallace
Harmeet from 4SN – “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” by Roald Dahl.
Pavneet from 4HS – “Step into Ancient Egypt” by Philip Steele.
Nithush from 5RK – “The Hobbit” by JRR Tolkien
Pirasnavy 6EK – “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” by Jeff Kenney
Teacher Recommendations
The teachers at Lady Margaret School also share their love of reading, here is a selection of the books that they loved to read:
Miss Simpson – “Private Peaceful” by Michael Morpurgo
Mrs. Wadhera – “Charlottes Web” by E.B. White
Mrs. Macfarlane – “Fairy Tales” by Hans Christian Andersen
Mrs. Hancock – “The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe” by C.S. Lewis
Our School Library
Books for all ages!
Story Corner
Year 5 Class Reading from LMPS Admin on Vimeo.
Oxford Owl
Oxford Owl is an award-winning website to help support children’s learning, both at home and at school. Click the link to visit their site http://www.oxfordowl.co.uk