The importance of reading:

At Holy Name Catholic Primary School, we view reading as a vital part of the school curriculum which impacts on all learning. Our aim is to ensure that we support children to develop a love of reading for educational success.

To find out more about our aims for reading at Holy Name, read our reading intent statement here.

Research shows, reading for pleasure has a positive impact on children’s attainment in reading. This in turn will have a high impact on pupils' attainment levels for other subjects which will support your child in later life.

A love of reading:

We develop a love of reading across the whole school by teaching English through a class text, ensuring our learning environments are inviting and supportive to the love of reading and providing competitions to engage pupils.

Click here to see our book corners.

Click here to see how we transformed our corridors.

Click here to see our Reading Den entries for 2022-23

Click here to see our Reading Den Competition - ENTRIES NOW CLOSED.

Create your own reading den at home using some wonderful ideas from our pupils here!

To support reading for pleasure, our pupils in nursery and reception take home a story book to read with their family each week. Soon we will be launching our library for pupils to be able to enjoy and borrow books from too! Our children in Key Stage One and Two will be able to visit the library and take books home – watch this space!

Holy Name Reading Challenges

To further develop a love of reading, we have set up a reading challenge of 30 books for each year group! The aim is for our children to read as many as they can throughout the year. We have selected texts which will broaden our pupils reading and learning experiences through a range of books including, poetry. These are suitable for the ages and aim to provide a breadth of interest including through carefully selected texts. All of these books will support your child’s love of reading and further enhance their vocabulary.

Reading Clubs:

We now have reading taking place at lunchtimes – this can be in the library or even on the playground with a comfortable beanbag and wonderful new books for pupils to enjoy.

Furthermore, we have a book club which takes place every Wednesday. This half term Year Two are enjoying it tremendously.

Teaching Reading through Phonics:

In the Early Years foundation Stage (EYFS) and Key Stage One (KS1) we teach synthetic phonics. We currently follow the order of Letters and Sounds and use activities such as ‘Mapping and Sorting’, word analysis and phoneme spotter stories to support pupils application. Our daily sessions provide the children with the opportunity to revisit their previous knowledge, be taught new skills and to practise and apply what they have learned. We are currently receiving training for a new scheme called ‘Sound Write’. We will update you when this has been fully implemented.

Pupils in KS2, who are not secure with the phonics taught in KS1 will receive further phonics input along with extra reading sessions to support them.

Home Reading:

We use the ‘Oxford Reading Tree Scheme’ to provide an opportunity for children to practise reading at home with an adult. To further support our families, our children have access to online texts through Oxford Owl Ebooks (see below) and Reading Plus for KS2 pupils.

Reading records are checked once a week and books are changed. You, as parents, can request for two books to be sent home each week – just leave a note in the reading record if you would like this. We also encourage you to to explore the books available online through Oxford Owl - have a look at our useful guide here.

The benefits of Reading Plus

The school will focus on developing confident, fluent readers. The Reading Plus program has been launched throughout school with the specific focus on improving reading fluency, increasing the words per minute that our children are able to read, whilst also covering the eight key comprehension domains. This program is tailored to each child’s individual needs and capabilities. You can help with this by encouraging your children to log in at home and read a small extract each day. 

 How you can support reading at home:

• Dedicate time each day – aim for 20 minutes
• Find a cosy corner to share a book – ideally without distraction
• Talk with your child about the book they are reading.
• Ask your child questions e.g. What is it about? Do they like it? What has happened so far? What do they think will happen next? Why did the character behave in that way?

Access local libraries:

Sandwell Local Authority library is open and free for all of our children to join: even if you are not a resident of Sandwell. This is a great resource to find books and discover new authors! Find your nearest library by clicking here. The library nearest to our school is Great Barr Library. It is a great place to go and visit after school!

Cultural Capital 

Cultural Capital can be defined as “the essential knowledge that pupils need to be educated citizens”. With the support of parents at home, we are encouraging children to read a range of fiction and non-fictions books so that they are exposed to the vocabulary and knowledge of the wider world. Reading non-fictions books will enable your child to broaden their knowledge of the world and have high chances of academic success in the future. Through our broad and balanced curriculum, teachers will also be exposing children to the information and vocabulary need to build ‘Cultural Capital’. 

Thank you for hearing your child read at home. As well as developing a love of reading, you are also helping your child become a better reader, and spending quality time with them to share and enjoy a diverse range of texts. These skills and memories will last a lifetime!