World Book Day 2024

We are passionate about reading at St. Teresa's and we share the importance and excitement of this subject with our pupils right from their very first day in reception. We enrich the children's learning by inviting Authors into school, exploring a wide range of high-quality texts which suit the interests of our pupils, and continuing to develop an atmosphere that fosters a love of books in children; improving focus, memory, empathy, and communication skills. Our focus is on developing vocabulary, and the key skills relating to becoming lifelong readers.  

Reading Intent

At St. Teresa’s Catholic Primary school, we recognise that reading is an essential life skill and we are committed to supporting our children on their journey to become lifelong readers. Reading is a skill that enables children to develop their learning across the wider curriculum, laying the foundations for success in future lines of study and employment. At St. Teresa’s, we ensure that all members of staff, who work alongside our children to support their reading, are provided with up-to-date training and feel confident in their role. We make every minute count with highly effective reading provision and support. At the heart of our strategy is our drive and determination to foster a love of reading, enriching our children’s learning through carefully planned teaching activities that utilise quality and thought-provoking texts. At. St. Teresa’s, we provide exciting reading experiences for our children, whilst supporting small groups of children throughout the school to lead fun reading sessions for other children during less structured times. The reading journey of our children begins on their very first day with us. We understand that all children are different and some may benefit from some additional support to help them keep up with the scheme used, within our school, to teach early reading.  By the end of Year 6, we aim for our children to be confident readers who continue their journey with a hard- working and ambitious attitude, which encourages them to strive for only the best.

Reading Implementation

Through the delivery of our reading curriculum, we ensure consistent and robust teaching and learning of early reading and phonics in FS and KS1, so that pupils are able to read with increased speed and fluency and access the wider curriculum. In the EYFS and KS1, we have carefully selected a scheme that matches to our curriculum and most importantly, the needs of our children (Essential Letters and sounds). Our children are formatively assessed daily and provided with books that match and support their phonics development and ability. All pupils have opportunities to develop their reading skills through daily timetabled phonics sessions and all other subjects within the curriculum.

We provide a text-rich environment at St Teresa's and consistently promote reading to be the key to unlocking a lifetime of knowledge.  Our children enjoy access to books in their class library which are updated with new texts regularly.  Children enjoy listening to challenging texts through daily story time and can access ‘link’ texts throughout each half term which share similar features to the books studied within our English lessons. Through high-quality teaching and learning experiences, we develop children’s skills and competence to become fluent readers who read to learn. Key reading skills have been carefully mapped out across all year groups to ensure prior learning is built upon accordingly and to ensure that key skills are progressive through each unit and year group.  

In Key Stage 2, in addition to the English hour, teachers deliver whole class shared reading sessions which incorporate new vocabulary, partner talk linked to retrieval or inference, individual thinking, and solo work. Alongside this, our 
KS2 children also use an online tool 'reading plus' to develop their skills in reading comprehension and fluency.   

Reading Impact

First and foremost, our pupils will find pleasure in reading, having experienced many exciting reading opportunities throughout their time with us. The impact of our reading curriculum goes beyond the result of statutory assessments as we aim for our children to continue their positive reading journey and embrace the wide and varied magical worlds that reading opens up to them. As a Year 6 reader, transitioning into secondary school, we aspire for our children to be fluent, confident, and able readers, who can access a range of texts for pleasure and enjoyment, as well as use their reading skills to unlock learning and flourish in all areas of the curriculum.

Reading in FS and KS1

At St. Teresa’s, we believe that all our children can become fluent readers and writers. We teach early reading and writing through Essential Letters and Sounds which is a systematic and synthetic phonics programme. We start teaching phonics in Reception and monitor the progression of our children very closely, helping them to build on their growing knowledge of the alphabetic code, mastering phonics to read and spell as they move through school. We provide our children with the ‘tools’ they need in order to tackle tricky and unfamiliar words. Our children also develop their phonics knowledge through phonics in guided reading sessions and across the curriculum. We have a strong focus on language development for our children because we know that speaking and listening are crucial skills for reading and writing in all subjects.

Oxford Owl eBooks  

Please click the link to read with your child at home. Login details can be found in your child's reading record. 

https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/login?active-tab=students 

Videos for Parents

Reading in KS2

We continue to read to our children every day as this helps to:

• Increase concentration
• Support cognitive development
• Improve imagination and creativity
• Improve language skills
• Model fluent and coherent reading
• Encourage a lifelong love of reading

Children in KS2 take part in shared reading sessions at least 3 times a week at St. Teresa's. The progress of the children is monitored closely and any children who have not yet passed the phonics screening test or struggling to read fluently, are identified for some extra support with a fully trained adult. Our KS2 children continue to use their home reading records between home and school, which may also be used to share any information regarding their reading. They progress through our reading book band system which offers a wide rainge of fiction, non- fiction and poetry books for them to enjoy.  Parents are encouraged to read the home reading book with their child daily. Information is given on how to support their child in reading on the school website, curriculum letters, parent information evenings and parents’ evenings. As children progress through the school, they become more independent in recording what they have read in their reading records.

End of year expectations 

The library

We are very lucky at St. Teresa’s to have a beautiful library for all of our children to enjoy. It is important for us to ensure that the children have many opportunities to explore our library and develop some independence when choosing a book to enjoy. Whilst the children are provided with a reading book matched to their reading ability, all children across the year groups enjoy coming along to the library to discover new texts of their choice to read alongside their reading book. The Year 6 librarians at St. Teresa’s are extremely supportive; helping younger children to find a book of interest and keeping our library tidy and inviting.

KS1 Brilliant Book Award

The Brilliant Book Award (BBA) is our exciting reading club for children aged six to seven years. Throughout the spring term, our KS1 children have lots of fun, sharing stories and voting for their favourite book to win a Brilliant Book Award. This takes place in our school library and always attracts the attention of lots of our younger ones!

Fantastic Book Awards (FBA)

The Fantastic Book Awards (FBA) is an inspiring reading club for children aged nine to eleven years.

FBA is an exciting opportunity for children to meet, discuss and share views about their reading in an informal way, and vote for one of the five books they consider to be an FBA Winner. The FBA club has been running for many years at St. Teresa’s and is something our children really enjoy.

Reading Leaders

At St. Teresa’s, we are very lucky to have a very hard-working team of Key Stage 2 children who meet regularly to plan, prepare, and deliver many different reading experiences for children from Reception to Year 6. We recognise the importance of children inspiring children and it is refreshing to watch our children confidently lead and motivate others. Our reading leaders thoroughly enjoy their role, taking their time to research and choose an age-appropriate book for the group of children they are delivering to. They explore our wonderful library for an exciting read and often follow their story time up with a fun activity. Our reading leaders wear their badges with pride and love to share and spread their love for books!

Reading leaders 2022/2023

Recommended Reading Lists

Follow the links below to explore a wide range of quality texts to suit the age of your child. 

Click the link below to visit our Writing page.