Reading

Our aim at Crawford is to make every child a reader.

Reading for pleasure is at the heart of our Reading Curriculum and we pride ourselves on being reading teachers. We know that a teacher with a rich, up to date understanding of children’s books, both fiction and non-fiction, is far more skilled at recommending the right book to the right child.
We ensure that all children love reading by taking the time to know them as people and as readers. By marrying their interests with their reading level, we are able to select the best book for them and we know that it only takes one book to hook a child into becoming a reader. Our joint mission is to ensure every child finds that book.

Rocket Phonics

Our children’s reading journey begins in EYFS, as their knowledge of phonics and letter sounds begins to emerge. Their enjoyment of texts is at the heart of the curriculum. They begin their love of reading through a wide variety of books, that have been carefully selected to engage and inspire them. 
All children benefit from frequent 1:1 reading sessions with an adult, who is able to maintain a consistent and thorough assessment of them. Reading books are selected for each individual child based on where they are within their phonics stage. This is vitally important to the success of each child’s reading journey. In addition to the 1-1 sessions, all children in EYFS participate in whole class reading sessions four times a week following the ‘Rocket Phonics’ scheme. These sessions ‘unpick’ a short text using book talk prompts and focus on the acquisition of new vocabulary and the development of active reading strategies by generating questions, making predictions and constructing images. Class Reward Systems are in place to encourage and motivate children in their reading.  Our Phonics programme extends into Y1 and Y2.

Reading Explorers

From Year 2 upwards, children continue to develop increased reading fluency as they progress through the book bands and into our ‘free choice’ selections in Upper KS2. Engagement in home reading, as children become more independent readers, is encouraged through a number of Class Reading Reward Systems. 
In addition to this, these children participate in whole class reading sessions four times a week following the ‘Reading Explorers’ scheme. These sessions ‘unpick’ a short text by giving each day a particular focus. Daily foci investigate the acquisition of new vocabulary, the skill of information retrieval (by selecting key words in the question and skimming the text for these then scanning around to check if the answer is there) and the art of deductive reasoning and using inference skills ( by following the APE format- Answer, Prove and Explain ). Each week culminates in an independent task, which allows children to practise and apply these focussed skills.

Class Novels

Every class has a class novel, which is read by the teacher, to help foster a love for reading and also to model the skills of intonation and tone through effective reading aloud. Through book talk, pupils and teachers are able to go on an exciting journey together, developing important active reading strategies (questioning, predicting and constructing images) along the way.

Box Library

Our newly created ‘Box Library’ opened recently and has already proved to be a huge success. There is a real ‘buzz’ during the weekly lunchtime sessions. Our talented Year 6 librarians are always at hand to offer support and guidance during book selections. They take a real pride in their important role and have organised logo competitions, quizzes and holiday reading challenges to promote interest and engagement in the library. 

Outdoor Reading Area

Our latest reading initiative is an outdoor reading area in a safe and secluded spot next to the playground. This peaceful sanctuary provides space for those who wish to read during playtimes and lunchtimes. There is a selection of books solely dedicated to this area but children are also more than welcome to bring their own from home to read. 

Reading is at the heart of our curriculum at Crawford. Not only do we want all our children to be functioning readers who can access the whole curriculum, we also want them to love reading and become readers for life.

Useful Websites

ICT games  - a vast selection of games to help literacy

Oxford Owl - 100s of free ebooks and games to help improve reading

British Council - a large library of online stories to read

Lovereading4kids- an absolutely brilliant website for those who love reading and also for those who are not quite sure what to read next. Go on, create a log in and find your next favourite book. You can even download the first chapter of every book to see whether you like it or not!  

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