Reading for Pleasure

Our teachers are passionate about reading and creating an environment that promotes reading. We believe that high-quality literature is key to motivating children to read and instilling in children a love of literature. In addition to a central school library, all classrooms have a book area where a wide range of books are displayed attractively and where browsing, choosing and reading can take place as a visible way of establishing and promoting a positive ethos for reading for pleasure. We carefully consider the range of texts made accessible to children to cover a breadth and variety of genres and formats as well as interests; ensuring children can experience a full and rich range of reading.

We promote reading for pleasure by:

Buddy reading -encouraging our children to share stories and ideas -transforming reading from a solitary activity to a social adventure.
Developing an ethos and an environment that excites, enthuses, inspires and values.
Using high quality texts with depth and interest in story, character, illustration, vocabulary, structure and subject matter.
Reading aloud to the children as a regular part of each day to enable the children to experience and enjoy stories that they might not otherwise meet helping to build communities of readers.
Developing teachers who are knowledgeable about children’s literature.
Creating a community of readers with opportunities to share responses and opinions.
Planning for talking about books and stories, providing structures within which to do this.
Understanding the importance of illustration in reading both in terms of creating a text and responding to a text.
Using drama and role-play to help children to understand and access texts.
Working with authors and author/illustrators to understand the process of creating books.
Using literature beyond the literacy lesson – cross-curricular planning with quality literature as the starting point.

See our recommended reading book lists: