At The Curzon we believe that all pupils can achieve in Reading, both for pleasure and in their comprehension and understanding. By developing a comprehensive range of reading skills, we aim to foster a love and appreciation of a variety of literature.  We do not put ceilings on what pupils can achieve and we do not hold pre-conceptions about any pupil’s ability to make progress. We believe that through reading, pupils have a chance to develop culturally, emotionally, intellectually, socially and spiritually. We feel that reading enables pupils both to acquire knowledge and to build on what they already know.

We intend that all pupils will read easily, fluently and with good expression. We want children to develop the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information. They will acquire a wide vocabulary and understanding of the conventions of reading.

Across the school, we value reading as a core subject and have a regular, thematic Whole Class Reading session outside of writing lessons.  The lessons use a wide variety of text genres, from different authors and cultures. We use the reading VIPERS to explore texts and teach the six core skills needed for reading comprehension.

Vocabulary
Inference
Predict
Explain
Retrieve
Sequence/Summarise

We teach a mastery approach to reading comprehension whereby the whole class are exposed to age-appropriate objectives. Support is given to those who need it to be able to access the lessons and ‘Challenges’ are provided for those achieving above the expected level.

Children take decodable books home from the Collins Big Cat scheme. This follows directly on from the Little Wandle reading books that Years Reception, 1 and 2 use so a consistent approach is used throughout the school. The children follow through the reading ‘colour’ bands and after Emerald books they progress to be a ‘Free Reader’ where they can choose their own reading book.