Reading

At Bridgetown Primary School we have a real passion for reading and a love of books. We recognise that the development of reading is crucial to the progress children make across the curriculum and we are determined that every child will learn to read, regardless of background, needs or abilities. We want our children to be fluent, confident readers. They will be exposed to a wealth of stories, poems, rhymes and non-fiction to develop their vocabulary, language comprehension and engender a genuine love of reading and a keen interest in a range of texts. We work to inspire them to become life-long readers who enjoy books and have a desire to read for pleasure. 

In order for the children to have the will to read, and be able to read to learn, they need to have secure skills in reading so that they can read with fluency and comprehension.  We teach and develop early reading through the Little Wandle complete SSP validated by the DfE. Reading is at the heart of our whole curriculum underpinning every subject area. We want every child to read widely, and to gain a rich knowledge across the curriculum. By offering a wide range of texts we aim to broaden their minds and experiences to allow them to empathise with the world in which they live and support the development of their cultural capital. Reading is such an important life skill that it is imperative we enable them to become independent readers who can easily process information, fully engage in all learning and be well prepared for their next stage of their education. 

By the end of KS1, children will be fluent at decoding, and by the age of 11, we aim for children to be able to:

• read with confidence, fluency and good understanding, drawing upon a range of independent strategies to self-monitor and correct;
• have an interest in a wide range of reading materials and read spontaneously for enjoyment and pleasure;
• read confidently to acquire information;
• acquire a wide vocabulary, an understanding of grammar and knowledge of linguistic conventions for reading;
• meet age related expectations for reading, with the aspiration to exceed them.

For further details about how this is implemented please see our Phonics Policy.

Celebrating Reading at Bridgetown 

Reading has a high profile in our school and we are proud of how we celebrate authors and literature with our children.  This promotes a love of reading and we hope creates life long readers of our pupils.
 

We regularly invite authors to visit and share their passion about books and writing with the children. We feel this brings literature to life and encourages children not only to read more but think about future careers as writers. 
 

After a visit from Vashti Hardy in May 2022, many KS2 children queued up to buy a copy of her book.

One child in Year 6 said “the author visit was very inspiring, it made me and my friends want to write a book”.

Jack bought all three books after being inspired to read after the author visit.
 

Petr Horáček's recent visit to our school also left children inspired and eager to read more of his wonderful books!

We have welcomed many more celebrated authors in to our school including Michael Rosen, Tom Percival (author of Perfectly Norman), Michelle Robinson (author of The World Made a Rainbow), Smriti Prasadam-Halls (author of Rain Before Rainbows), Vashti Hardy and Eileen Browne. 

Additionally, each year we plan engaging and exciting World Book Day events where every member of the school community takes part to celebrate and promote children’s literature. For many this is the highlight of the year. 
 

Below are some of the highlights of our reading events over the past few years.

World Book Day 2022

We had great fun celebrating the 25th anniversary of World Book Day this year. The children looked wonderful dressed in their costumes and had a day filled with reading for pleasure.  Each time they heard the bell ring they had to drop everything and read, they enjoyed a Harry Potter scavenger hunt around the school and participated in their literacy enrichment week activities.

With our commitment to closing the vocabulary gap, teachers came dressed as a word.  The children in school had to guess who was dressed as each word to complete their vocabulary bingo game.

Can you guess who’s dressed as archaic? Solitary? Hoggish? Incognito? Mysterious? Fragile? 

...and not to forget our Senior Leadership Team's annual skit!

The Bridgetown Reading Spine 

The Reading Spine is a core of books that create a living library inside a child's minds: a store of classics and essential reads that help children engage at a deeper level.

Teachers dedicated time and effort in seeking out a selection of books that represent a wide and diverse range of authors, styles and genres.

We hope through discussing our selections with the children it helps them to form an idea of how to choose books and in turn will allow them to make decisions about their own reading habits based on what they hear in their daily reading slots.

In Reception we chose: 

In Year 1 we chose: 

In Year 2 we chose: 

In Year 3 we chose: 

In Year 4 we chose: 

In Year 5 we chose: 

In Year 6 we chose: