READING

Our intent: a bespoke and progressive curriculum, that is thoughtfully sequenced to enable all children to build and deepen their knowledge, develop strong skills, and engage in exceptional curriculum experiences.

Reading is at the heart of the curriculum at Parklands, driven by our ambition for every child to become a fluent, confident reader who truly enjoys books. From the very beginning, we place a strong emphasis on developing early reading skills through the systematic teaching of synthetic phonics, ensuring every child masters decoding with accuracy and fluency.

Alongside this, we provide a rich and varied range of reading experiences, immersing children in a diverse selection of books that inspire curiosity, imagination, and a lifelong love of reading.

Early Reading

Getting children reading as quickly and confidently as possible is our priority. We follow the ELS programme to ensure a structured, progressive approach to phonics, equipping pupils with the skills to decode effectively.

Phonics is taught daily as a whole-class session, beginning as soon as children start Reception full-time. These sessions are highly interactive, engaging, and fast-paced, ensuring every child stays motivated and actively involved in their learning.

However, phonics is not taught in isolation—we immerse children in phonics throughout the day. Their reading scheme books are carefully matched to the sounds they are learning, and English sessions provide opportunities to reinforce and embed these phonics skills. This structured approach continues into Year 1, ensuring children are well-prepared for the Phonics Screening Check.

Both Reception and Year 1 classrooms are well resourced with phonics mats, phase words, and a language-rich environment, where pupils can explore a diverse selection of engaging texts.

Every learning space is designed to inspire a love of reading and deepen children’s understanding of phonics in meaningful ways.

Engaging families in early reading is a key part of our approach. To celebrate reading together, we invite families of our children to a Reading Café on one Friday each term – an opportunity for parents and carers to join their child at the end of the week and share books in a warm and welcoming setting.

Reading across the School

As children transition into Key Stage One, the strong foundations built in the Early Years are further developed. Teachers deepen pupils’ understanding and appreciation of texts through thoughtful questioning, encouraging them to explore themes, characters, and meaning in greater depth.

A diverse range of high-quality texts is carefully selected to enrich pupils’ vocabulary and foster a genuine love of reading. Our broad and balanced curriculum ensures that children engage with a variety of poetry, fiction, and non-fiction from a range of authors, expanding their literary experiences and nurturing confident, enthusiastic readers.

Our Independent Reading books are carefully selected to support each child at an individual level, providing the right balance of challenge and progression. Teachers choose texts that meet pupils’ needs, helping to foster a love of reading while supporting their development.

We use a range of materials and stimuli to engage children and cultivate their reading enthusiasm. Our independent reading books are primarily from the Oxford Tree Reading Scheme, offering a mix of fiction, poetry, and non-fiction texts. This diverse selection ensures pupils are exposed to a variety of genres and styles, broadening their literary experiences.

Recognising that every learner is unique, we employ a variety of strategies to support the teaching of reading. Teachers use decoding techniques, including phonics and picture cues, to help each pupil build the skills they need. This approach ensures all children become confident, competent readers who take pleasure in the written word.

In addition to independent reading, and from the end of the Early Years, pupils in KS1 begin to take part in reading comprehension sessions. This provides pupils further opportunities to explore challenging texts, discuss their learning and ideas.

In Year 2, we gradually introduce whole class text analysis sessions to help children develop the skills they need to explore texts on a deeper level. These sessions focus on key reading domains, fostering critical thinking and comprehension skills that are essential for becoming successful, confident readers.

In Years 2-6, children look forward to their Class Read at the end of each day, which offers the opportunity to explore a range of enriching texts. Through engaging with novels from different periods, children develop a deeper understanding of language, characterisation, and complex sentence structures, enhancing their reading comprehension and appreciation of literature.

Text analysis sessions occur daily in Years 3-6. On day 1, children work with their teacher and peers to study a short text, leading to a rich discussion of the vocabulary, themes and structures of the text. On day 2, children will answer a range of comprehension questions linked to the text. For the reminder of the week, children will focus on a key reading skill.

Throughout Years 1-6, we follow the English sequence of Reading into Writing. As a school, we recognise that reading is fundamental to the writing process, as children can only write successfully if they have a full understanding of the features of specific genres and therefore explore texts from a variety of genres.

Reading Experiences at Parklands

We recognise the importance of promoting reading for pleasure, alongside reading for learning purposes – both are equally valued in our approach.

Every Friday from 2:45 pm, the entire school enjoys Reading for Pleasure, a dedicated time that children and staff eagerly anticipate. For one Friday a term, we welcome families to Parklands to join their child to share a book and a shared love of reading. On the other weeks, classes swap, where our fantastic KS 2 children will read or listen to our KS1 children read.

We are incredibly fortunate to have a wonderful school library, where children can explore a diverse range of books, change their selections weekly, and experience the magic of storytelling through visits from a local librarian.

Parklands is at the very top of national Phonics tables, well ahead of the 81% pre-pandemic UK average, with an incredible 92% of children passing the phonics screening in 2024.