Literacy
Court Fields Whole School Reading Strategy
Literacy is defined as the ability to read, write, speak and listen in a way that lets us communicate effectively and make sense of the world. A key element of literacy is reading, which brings significant benefits that have a lifelong positive impact on children’s lives.
Reading supports children to overcome disadvantage.
Reading promotes better mental wellbeing, social skills and strong relationships
Reading enables children to reach speech and language milestones and achieve better at school.
Reading helps children to develop imagination, creativity and empathy.
(Book Trust 2024)
Aim: At Court Fields School we develop confident readers who enjoy a diverse range of texts and are challenged to improve their reading skills whilst promoting a love of reading.
We know that ‘reading’ covers decoding, comprehension and fluency. Our Reading strategies handbook supports our staff, and their application of strategies implemented and embedded across the school - Reading Handbook
To improve decoding skills for our weakest readers, who are reading below their chronological age, we employ a phonics curriculum led by our Reading Intervention Lead (Primary School Teacher) along with trained staff within our learning support department.
To ensure pupils develop their comprehension skills (their knowledge and understanding of what texts mean) a variety of strategies are used, which include SPARX Reader Year 7-9 which is given an 30 minutes - hour a week of dedicated time.
Teachers model fluency when they read to the class through their intonation of pitch, stress and rhythm; awareness of punctuation and pauses, pace of reading, and use of tone, to enhance meaning.
We have a fantastic provision in the library with a huge range of non-fiction and fiction texts, from a diverse range of authors including a range of themes. The library is very well attended by a wide range of pupils and book loans are high.
Our reading strategy is broken down into 3 areas: Developing a love of reading, reading across the curriculum and progressional reading.
Further links:
Reading Intervention
Recommended Reads
Wider Reader
Tutor Reading
Sparx Reader
