At Kingsway Junior School, we place reading at the heart of our curriculum because we believe it is the key to unlocking learning across all subjects and developing lifelong learners. We are committed to ensuring that every child becomes a fluent, confident and enthusiastic reader who reads with accuracy, automaticity and understanding.

Our reading curriculum is carefully designed to develop pupils' fluency, vocabulary, language comprehension and enjoyment of reading. Through daily opportunities to read, pupils are explicitly taught the knowledge and strategies they need to construct meaning from increasingly challenging texts. We recognise that reading comprehension depends upon secure word reading, rich vocabulary and background knowledge, and we carefully plan opportunities for children to develop all of these elements.

We have developed a carefully sequenced Reading Spine, ensuring that every child experiences a rich, diverse and ambitious range of high-quality fiction, non-fiction and poetry throughout their time at Kingsway. These carefully selected texts include contemporary and classic literature, books that reflect a wide range of cultures, experiences and perspectives, and texts that build children's knowledge of the wider curriculum and the world around them.

Reading lessons are centred on high-quality, age-appropriate texts that are read and reread to develop fluency and deep comprehension. Through explicit teaching, rich discussion and purposeful questioning, pupils learn to interpret, infer, explain and evaluate what they read, while developing an appreciation of language, authorial choices and literary themes. Opportunities for repeated oral reading, modelled fluent reading and performance reading help children develop confidence, prosody and reading stamina.

We foster a culture where reading for pleasure is valued and celebrated. Teachers read aloud to their classes every day, introducing pupils to texts beyond those they can read independently and nurturing a genuine love of stories, language and literature. Our classrooms and library promote independent reading, enabling children to develop personal preferences, make informed choices and see themselves as readers.

Assessment is used purposefully to identify strengths and next steps, enabling timely support and challenge so that all pupils can make sustained progress. Through our ambitious reading curriculum, we aim for every child to leave Kingsway Junior School as a fluent, knowledgeable and motivated reader, fully prepared for the next stage of their education and equipped with the skills to access the wider curriculum and participate confidently in the world beyond school.

Whole Class Books

English lessons are taught  through  quality texts  which  have been carefully chosen to engage the children and inspire a whole range of writing opportunities  linked to the book.  Across the year, children will work with a wide range of  texts  including  picture books, story books, reports, non-fiction books, Shakespeare stories and poetry.

Guided Reading

Teachers work with small groups of pupils to teach specific and targeted reading skills in books  that are  challenging and will develop  their reading skills. Guided reading lessons show children how to engage deeply with different texts thus developing their comprehension. The aim is to support children in reading books of increasing challenge in order to prepare them for all the reading they will need to undertake across many subjects in their future education. Children undertake a  range of reading activities during guided reading lessons  including reading fluency, independent reading and tasks to develop visualisation and inference skills.

Class Story

The last 15 minutes of every day is dedicated to children listening to their teacher read; this might be reading from their whole class book from English lessons,  or it might be something completely different.

Reading for Pleasure

At Kingsway Juniors,  we promote children’s own reading for pleasure. Children go to our library every week and can choose any book that interests them, or that they would like to try reading.  We encourage children to try different authors and  non-fiction books, so that they can begin to identify the authors and subjects that bring them joy in their reading. Children can take their library book  home  in addition to their own reading-book, Their reading-book is chosen from the class reading corner  and should be a book they can read with relative ease.

On Fridays, each class enjoys their own Book Club, where they share recommendations, find out about recent publications and generally get excited about books! 

Reading one-to-one with an adult

We know that reading to an adult is essential to build "reading hours" and monitor children's progression, and develop a positive reading experience, connected to relationships and communication.  Most importantly, it is special to a child and so build this time into the school day in all year groups.