Reading

We pride ourselves in celebrating a love of reading throughout school from the moment the pupils arrive until the moment they leave. We encourage pupils to develop a love of reading so that they become life-long readers. It is our aim to ensure that pupils become fluent readers as early as possible. We recognise how crucial this is for pupils to be able to access all areas of the curriculum.

At Delta Pheasant Bank, we love reading and we are committed to ensuring every child reaches their full potential. We have a fantastic library, and we run lots of reading events throughout the year including Fright Night, Harry Potter Book Night and the Summer Reading Festival. Our vision is for students to develop a love and passion for reading whilst they are at our academy, leaving us with the skills to succeed in the next phase of their education and beyond.

Children take part in a minimum of three reading sessions each day; 20 minutes Reading Plus session, a 35 minute reading lesson and a 15 minute story session. Students also read across the curriculum throughout the day and take part in fortnightly library sessions. In addition, children can access to the library at social times and can attend an after school club to further immerse themselves in quality texts. There are inviting reading areas situated throughout the academy where children may sit and read for pleasure in their own time. During reading lessons, students study a whole class text which is chosen to engage and challenge students.

We have invested in re-stocking the home-reading books in order to ensure that all pupils have an appropriate text to help develop their reading fluency. Each year group has a recommended reading list which children can use to support them in selecting their reading texts (downloadable below). In addition to this, we have invested in the RWInc. book bag books to ensure pupils are taking home a phonetically decodable book that is matched to their reading ability. Our intent is that no child should leave our school without being able to read.

We listen to the pupils read regularly and they are then encouraged to read aloud to an adult at home at least three times a week. This is to help reinforce their word recognition; improve their fluency and confidence; and share their love of reading with siblings and parents, which pupils track using GoRead. We reward pupils who read at home with ‘regular reading’ rewards. They are recognised weekly and half-termly in assembly with special prizes and everywhere around school, you will see encouragement for reading. We acknowledge that not all pupils will have the opportunity to read at home. Therefore, we ensure these pupils are listened to as often as possible within school.

Reading Plus is a reading intervention program that we have invested in to support pupils in developing their silent reading skills, it also provides staff with a range of information about each pupil as a reader including their preferences, confidence, reading speed and comprehension skills. This supports teachers in identifying areas that pupils require support. Pupils begin to use reading plus when they have completed the RWI phonics program.

We want the pupils to develop a love of reading. This is encouraged through the use of reading challenges, our school library and class texts. We ensure all of our pupils read widely and often, with fluency and comprehension appropriate to their age. Furthermore, we arrange engaging experiences such as author visits, library visits and events to expose the pupils to the joy that reading can bring. We have regular visits from Peter J Murray, a popular children’s author, who was inspired to use our academy as the setting for his book Poppy Warriors. All our students receive a copy of this text when they join our academy.

To find out more about reading in our academy you can contact us on 01302 651039 or follow us on twitter for details of our reading events @DeltaPheasantB

Alternatively, you can follow the links below: