Reading at Weelsby

We pride ourselves in celebrating a love of reading throughout our school from the moment the pupils arrive, until the moment they leave. We encourage pupils to develop a love of reading so that they become life-long readers. It is our aim to ensure that pupils become fluent readers as early as possible. We recognise how crucial this is for pupils to be able to access all areas of the curriculum.

Each class are able to immerse themselves in quality texts as each class contains a reading corner and themed reading areas are situated throughout the academy where children may sit and read for pleasure in their own time. We have also invested in re-stocking the home-reading books in order to ensure that all pupils have an appropriate text to help develop their reading fluency. In addition to this, we have invested in the RWInc. books to ensure pupils are taking home a phonetically decodable book. Our intent is that no child should leave our school without being able to read, regardless of their starting point.

We listen to the pupils read regularly and they are then encouraged to read aloud to an adult at home at least three times a week. This is to help reinforce their word recognition; improve their fluency and confidence; and share their love of reading with siblings and parents. We reward pupils who read at home regularly with gift wrapped books from our very own ‘Weelsbystones.’ Everywhere around school, you will see encouragement for reading.

We ensure all of our pupils read widely and often throughout the curriculum, with fluency and comprehension appropriate to their age. Furthermore, we arrange engaging experiences such as author visits and book fairs to expose the pupils to the joy that reading brings. This aims to involve and inspire the community with developing a love of reading.

A strategic approach to story time is embedded. All pupils in the academy enjoy listening to an age appropriate story every day. Each classroom is transformed in to an inviting environment where the pupils are able to lose themselves in the imaginary world inspired by the story telling experience.

The Reading Strategy

The Reading Strategy is a trust-wide approach to develop reading comprehension skills; it takes place every day for 30 minutes in KS1 and for at least 40 minutes in KS2. It incorporates age-appropriate, challenging texts which are vocabulary rich therefore pupils are exposed to texts which enable them to respond using a greater range of vocabulary.