KS2 Reading

At St Mary's we love to read!

In Key Stage 2, children are given the opportunity to change their own books within their reading band as often as they need. There is also a selection of age appropriate books for children to peruse in the class libraries. 

'All pupils must be encouraged to read widely across both fiction and non-fiction to develop their knowledge of themselves and the world in which they live, to establish an appreciation and love of reading, and to gain knowledge across the curriculum. Reading also feeds pupils’ imagination and opens up a treasure-house of wonder and joy for curious young minds.'

National Curriculum 2014

We read together every day in class, from Nursery all the way up to Year 6. Books are used in our English lessons as well. Take a look at some of the books we are using over the year.

Our guided reading is fun and purposeful. Our approach is informed by extensive research into comprehension strategy instruction, as recommended by the EEF. 

The aims of the sessions are to engage with texts, respond to them, talk about them and developing deeper understanding (comprehension).

During the sessions, we focus on developing the key comprehension strategies through careful modelling and supported practice.

The sessions utilise a wide variety of texts and seek to: 

• Encourage critical and evaluative thinking through use of open prompts, questions and invitations
• Encourage reference to the text to support their thinking
• Build towards group dialogue
• Encourage personal responses from the children
• Enable children to support their opinions with evidence from the text and to change and adapt their ideas in response to others

ReadTheory is an online reading comprehension assessment tool for students. It allows students to read narrative, informative, or informational literary passages and answer corresponding comprehension questions, while tracking student performance and reporting progress to teachers. It is free for all users. Children have all got passwords in their reading diaries.

What can you do and why is it important?

There a great websites out there that can help you raise children that love to read by recommending books for all ages and tastes. LoveReading4Kids and Brightly are just two. They cater for all age groups, from toddlers to teens and provide a variety of free services for parents and anyone who is interested in promoting a love reading.

Evidence strongly suggests that parents and the home environment are essential to the early teaching of reading and fostering a love of reading.

Key findings from the evidence include:

• Parental involvement in a child’s literacy has been reported as a more powerful force than other family background variables, such as social class, family size and level of parental education (Flouri and Buchanan, 2004 – cited in Clark and Rumbold, 2006);

• Children whose home experiences promote the view that reading is a source of entertainment are likely to become intrinsically motivated to read (Baker, Serpell and Sonnenschein, 1995 – cited in Clark and Rumbold, 2006);

• Children are more likely to continue to be readers in homes where books and reading are valued (Baker and Scher, 2002 – cited in Clark and Rumbold, 2006).

Book banding:

Click the link to find additional free reading e-books that you can access at home.