Reading Information

Reading Overview

At Fleetville, we believe reading is the foundation of all learning. We aim to develop confident, fluent and knowledgeable readers who can understand, question and think deeply about what they read.

To achieve this, our reading curriculum balances two complementary strands:

Whole-Class Novels: Children read complete books, immersing themselves in full stories. Repeated exposure to narrative structures, characters, and settings strengthens comprehension while building reading stamina and enjoyment.
Themed Reading Sessions: Children explore poems, articles, biographies, images, song lyrics, and videos. This widens their reading diet, enriches knowledge in history, geography, RE, and science (freeing afternoon time for practical/disciplinary work), and promotes diversity by reflecting a broad range of voices and perspectives.

Year Groups Texts

Our Four Big Ideas

Our reading curriculum is built upon four pillars that are woven together over time:

Decoding & Fluency: Building automatic word recognition, accuracy, and expressive phrasing ( $prosody$ ) so cognitive energy is freed up for comprehension.
Vocabulary Knowledge: Explicitly teaching word meanings in depth, equipping children to unlock complex and unfamiliar texts.
Background Knowledge: Systematically expanding children's knowledge of history, science, geography, and culture to help them contextualise what they read.
Comprehension: Teaching active strategies - such as questioning, summarising, predicting, and inferring - so children think deeply and critically.

How Reading Is Taught

Children participate in structured daily reading sessions that balance talk, shared reading and written responses:

Morning Reading Sessions:
- 2× Class Novel: Focuses on deep comprehension, tracking characters, themes, and author choices across complete texts.
- 2× Themed Reading: Builds background knowledge, vocabulary, and text variety linked directly to curriculum themes and the wider world.
Afternoon Read-Aloud:
- Teachers read high-quality class books aloud to foster a shared reading culture, model fluent and expressive reading and build pure enjoyment.

Supporting Every Reader

We are committed to ensuring every child can access our reading curriculum through targeted support:

Classroom Scaffolds: Pre-teaching key vocabulary and using adapted text formats or questions.
Targeted Fluency & Phonics: Small-group repeated reading practice for children working below age-related expectations, plus targeted phonics interventions for pupils securing their decoding skills.
Accessible Quality Books: We stock a dedicated collection of Barrington Stoke books, specially designed to offer age-appropriate, exciting stories with accessible reading levels for children facing specific reading barriers like dyslexia.
Adaptive Technology: Diagnostic reading programs (such as Literacy Gold) provide targeted, responsive support where extra consolidation is needed.

Library and Independent Reading

We love our school library, which was officially opened on 7th October 2024 by children’s author Cressida Cowell MBE. The calming, rich colours were chosen to create a peaceful space where children feel safe, welcome, and inspired to read. Our pupils love spending time in the library, and we are incredibly proud of the wide range of books available for them to explore and enjoy.

Every classroom also features its own curated book corner with around 150 categorised books.

To track and support home reading progress, we use the Collins Big Cat reading scheme, with the goal that the majority of pupils become independent 'free readers' off the scheme by Years 5 and 6.

How We Measure Progress

We track reading development using a range of clear tools:

Baseline Fluency Checks: Completed in September (and repeated throughout the year as needed) to track reading speed and accuracy.
Termly Assessments: Standardised comprehension papers benchmark progress against age-related expectations.
Ongoing Daily Checks: Teachers monitor partner discussion, oral responses, and short written tasks to address misconceptions immediately.
Our Ultimate Goal: True reading impact is seen when children speak about books with genuine excitement, read widely for pleasure, and confidently apply their reading skills to learn across the wider curriculum.

Fleetville Junior School