Reading

At St Mary and St Paul’s, we aim to develop the ability to read with fluency, accuracy and understanding for all of our children. We encourage them to be interested in books and to read with enjoyment.

We also work hard to make sure that we give all of our children a range of reading skills.  We believe that reading quality literature opens children up to ideas, experiences, places and times they might never otherwise experience in real life.

As part of our reading provision at St Mary and St Paul’s, we actively encourage reading for pleasure and want to give our children the idea that reading is an enjoyable and a fun thing to do!

At our school we believe that…

• reading is at the centre of our curriculum
• being able to read well is a key life skill for all children and every child can develop as a reader
• high quality phonics teaching is an essential part of teaching reading
• children need explicit teaching of comprehension skills to become real readers
• a love of reading can be taught and encouraged at school – just like any other area of the curriculum
• reading for pleasure and reading for purpose are equally important
• providing good quality reading resources is a priority
• developing an environment which supports and encourages reading is vital
• every teacher should be an advocate for reading
• reading with adults at home plays an essential role in developing a love of reading 

At St Mary and St Paul’s, we are working hard to promote a love of reading in our pupils.  In every classroom, there are a range of books and we also use books in many areas of our curriculum (see our reading spine for each class for Autumn).  We have also reorganised our school library, so that the children have an even wider selection of books to read and enjoy in a weekly visit with their class.

We have also invited a range of authors into school over the past couple of years (Billy Bob Buttons and Sean Perkins), as well as a story teller.  We love World Book Day and have carried out a range of activities linked to this from, designing a potato character, dressing up as their favourite book character and the masked reader!

Below, you will find lists of books that are suitable for the ages of the children, along with some questions, which you may want to ask your child after they have read with you.  

Enjoy exploring our love of reading through our book suggestions, tips and ideas!