Reading for Pleasure
The Howden-le Wear Reading curriculum is designed to foster a love of reading. At Howden le Wear Primary School we understand how important it is for our pupils to leave school as fluent readers who can understand texts that are put in front of them. Our belief is that the teaching of reading is integral to a child’s understanding and appreciation of the world around them; a platform that allows our children to see beyond what they know, share in cultural experiences and develop the vocabulary they need to effectively express themselves
We believe that reading, and particularly reading for pleasure, has a direct impact on cognitive and social communicative development. Our aim is to develop every child’s potential to the point where they are reading at, or above, their chronological age, in preparation for a rigorous reading curriculum.
We also understand how important it is for our pupils to love books and have therefore put together a carefully crafted curriculum to ensure that the reading journey our pupils take with us is an enjoyable one and prepares them for the next stage in their education.
Our passion for reading is shared by many inspirational people:
“Reading is important, if you know how to read then the whole world opens up to you.” Barack Obama.
“The more that you read, the more thing you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.” Dr Seuss.
“If you are going to get anywhere in life, you have to read a lot of books.” Roald Dahl.
Above all else, we want our children to enjoy reading and have the confidence to read independently, exploring a range of genres and authors. All children have access to a library within school, whether this be in the classroom or in a shared area. We have designed these spaces carefully to ensure they are inviting for all children. Across the curriculum, teachers carefully choose high quality texts linked to their topics, interests and to include a range of diversity.
Reading for Pleasure opportunities in Howden-le-Wear Primary School include:
- a Lending Library in every class. This is to promote a love of reading and encourage children to read books for their own pleasure. This book of choice is from a wide range of text types in the class library and may sit outside of their reading stage. We encourage families to share these books together with children and support where necessary
- Fiction Express – from Y3 upwards – https://en.fictionexpress.com/account/teacher/dashboard/ . This gives children access to a range of books of different levels across all genres for children to read. Children have access to this at home and at school.
- Reading Doorway books. Recommended age appropriate books for every class to read/share at home to give children access to a broad range of high quality and acclaimed authors and a breadth of genres. The reading doorway challenge is an opportunity for children to ‘open the door’ to a different world through reading. A chance to drift into a world of imagination and get lost amongst the words of a great story. Each year the children are challenged to read/share six new and exciting books in any order they wish. Once a book has been completed, they return it to school. They are then be awarded a sticker in their Reading Doorway Booklet as a record. They can then choose another book. The books have been carefully chosen to challenge and develop reading for the specific age groups. They progressively get harder as the children move through the school. There are six books to read each year and we challenge the children to read all 42 of them during their time at Howden. Doing so will improve their understanding of a wide range of narratives, story structure, comprehension, writing and vocabulary.
- Book related events including book swaps, author visits and visiting book fairs
- World Book Day events
- All classes are given timetabled access to the library weekly
- Trips to the local library.
