Reading Intent

Reading is at the heart of Westover.  Our curriculum is driven by high quality texts.  High priority is given to teaching phonics, using a systematic synthetic approach. Reading for pleasure is important to us, as is increasing children’s access to books.  

We strive to ensure that every child leaves us not only with the ability to read independently, fluently and with good understanding, but with a genuine passion for books. All of our children should be able to understand and talk about a wide range of texts. We want them to develop a varied and rich vocabulary, to read a range of authors and genres and to broaden their understanding about the diverse world in which they live through the knowledge they gain from texts. 

We have high ambitions for all of our children; we do not put ceilings on what they can achieve and we believe every child has the ability to make great progress. Parents and carers play a key role in supporting their children to develop both decoding and comprehension skills. We aim to establish a home-school partnership which promotes an understanding of how to enhance the skills being taught in school.  We recognise that not all of our families are able to support their child; no child is penalised for this, instead we increase the support we give at school.  

It is our aim that all children will leave Westover as resilient and confident readers, able to make informed choices about what they read and well-prepared for their secondary education. 

Reading at Home
 

The more often that children can read and practise their reading skills, the more fluent readers they will become, which is essential in enabling them to read for pleasure. 

At Westover, our expectation is that children read at home 5 times a week for 10-15 minutes at a time. Please ensure that this is recorded in their home reading record each day. In school, class teachers will check the records daily to see what the children have read at home and read any comments from parents.

•  In Years R, 1 and 2, children who read 5 times a week, with parents recording in the home reading record, will be given a special reading sticker each Friday.
• In Years 3, 4, 5 and 6, children who read 5 times a week, with parents recording in the home reading record, will earn reward time where they can have 20 minutes of free choice play on a Friday. Those children who have not read 5 times during the week will have the opportunity to catch up on missed reading, before joining their peers for a shorter reward time. Children in these year groups can complete their own reading record when they have read at home, but a parent must sign next to this please. It's also useful to record either how long they have read for, or how many pages they have read.

We’d like to thank you for your continued support with home reading.