At Botley School, we are passionate about developing a love of reading. Reading lies at the heart of our curriculum and we approach reading in a wide range of ways, in order to ensure that no child misses out on the pleasure of books and reading. We believe that reading is an essential life skill and it is our intent to empower our children to become lifelong readers by fostering a love of reading through listening to and interacting with a variety of literature, genres and authors.
We aim for children to be absorbed in as many opportunities to enjoy and celebrate reading as this skill enables children to develop their learning across the wider curriculum. By enriching children’s experiences through imaginative stories and thought-provoking texts, we aspire to lay the foundations for academic success. We recognise the importance of taking a consistent whole school approach to the teaching of reading in order to close any gaps and to target the highest possible number of children attaining the expected standard or higher.
develop positive attitudes towards reading so that it is a pleasurable and meaningful activity;
use reading skills as an integral part of learning in all curriculum areas;
foster an interest and enjoyment in words and their meanings and to gain an appreciation of books from a variety of genres;
read and respond to a variety of texts whilst gaining increased level of fluency, accuracy, independence and understanding;
develop different strategies for approaching reading and to be able to orchestrate the full range of strategies;
We deliver daily phonics through the high quality programme Read Write Inc Phonics. We consistently implement it to equip children with the skills they need to decode and become fluent readers.
Children are provided with books that are clearly matched to their phonic abilities so they can be successful when practising. Throughout the school children are support in catching up quickly by making ongoing assessments and targeted interventions.
For pupils in KS2 who have identified additional needs, we provide interventions based around the Fresh Start programme which is designed to build on the Read, Write Inc. programme.