Reading Spine
Reading Spine Rationale
At St Paschal Baylon Catholic Primary School, we teach children both how to learn to read and to read to learn. We also recognise the importance of reading for pleasure and sharing our enjoyment of a range of texts. Our Reading Spine provides children with access to a wide range of fiction, non-fiction and poetry texts that are enjoyed through shared reading sessions, English lessons, reading for pleasure and also through the wider curriculum.
Learning to read is focused primarily on the phonics skills of the children and being able to decode and blend sounds to read. We follow the Read Write Inc programme in EYFS and KS1 and, through this programme, children are exposed to a range of story books that directly match their reading ability. These books are shared both in school and at home.
Alongside the RWI programme, children in EYFS also explore a wide range of texts through the ‘Talk Through Stories’ scheme. This scheme allows children to become very familiar with a chosen story and develops their use of vocabulary. EYFS children will also listen to and explore a wide range of texts through the varied topics taught throughout the year.
Across the school, children will be exposed to a range of texts during the English topics taught each term. The ‘Ready Steady Write’ scheme is followed when teaching writing as this provides children access to high-quality, diverse texts. Alongside this, Year 1 and Year 2 also have a selection of shared reading texts that are available for teachers to read during whole class reading times. They may also be used across the wider curriculum where appropriate. These texts are taken from the ‘Ready Steady Comprehension’ scheme.
In KS2, reading to learn focuses primarily upon the reciprocal reading skills children require to read for pleasure and to develop subject knowledge. These reciprocal reading skills are taught explicitly during shared reading and guided reading lessons. The ‘Ready Steady Comprehension’ scheme is followed when teaching reading in KS2, as this exposes the children to a variety of diverse, challenging and thematic texts, including: fiction, non-fiction and poetry.
Our Reading Spine also includes a selection of suggested reads, for each year group, which have been adapted from Pie Corbett’s Reading Spine. These books are available for children to read independently, as a class or in a small group. Ultimately, the intention of our Reading Spine is for every child to experience the pleasure and challenge of great literature. By being exposed to a wide-range of good quality texts, we hope to create a living library inside each child’s mind by the time they leave our school.
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