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Reading

Reading is a priority for us here at Riverside as we want all of our children to be competent readers and enjoy a love of reading. It is our intention to immerse our children in the wonders of quality texts to instil a passion for discovery and a confidence to explore their imagination. We enjoy sharing stories with the children, the children share stories with us as well as read independently throughout the school day. 

Read, Write, Inc.

At Riverside, the very start of your child's reading development starts with the teaching of phonics using a programme called Read Write Inc. This is a daily session that starts in Foundation Stage with the children learning their initial sounds and blending these sounds into words so that, early on, the children experience success. The children then move on to learning to read the same sounds with alternative graphemes. Phonic books are matched to the children's increasing knowledge of phonics and as children re-read these stories their fluency develops. The children take home three books weekly: their current storybook, a matched book bag book as well as a reading for pleasure book. Once children come off of the Read Write Inc scheme they take home a blend of books from other schemes including Oxford Reading Tree, Dandelion Readers, Songbirds etc. These support children with their reading journey, ensuring they are reading widely and fluently. Prompts for thinking out loud and discussion help the children understand what they are reading.
Use the link below for useful phonics and reading advice for parents:

The Power of Reading Approach:                                                      

*Helps schools create a whole school reading ethos that allows children to engage with and progress in Reading and Writing.                                                                                             

 *Places high quality children’s literature at the heart of the English curriculum.                   

 *Uses creative approaches to enrich teaching and learning.                                                   

  *Provides schools with the subject knowledge and the tools to deliver a high quality, creative English curriculum.

Children are exposed to a range of different writing genres, which have been specifically tailored for their year group. Through the cross-curricular teaching sequences, children are immersed in high quality texts so that they are continuously developing their language and the skills needed to produce their own high quality pieces of writing. English skills including Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar are integrated in English lessons wherever possible, as well as being taught discretely. Throughout each Key Stage, every opportunity is taken to apply progressive English skills in all areas of the curriculum, build on pupils’ previous knowledge and develop these further. Emphasis is paid on children becoming proficient at editing and improving their own work and that of their peers. This is developed throughout the school from a young age. Children use purple polishing pens to edit and improve their work.  We believe this will motivate and enthuse our children and therefore allow them to become confident and skilful in English and most importantly enjoy it.

PROUD

PROUD is a new Trust initiative that we are excited to be developing here at Riverside. PROUD stands for philosophy in action, reading, oracy, understanding the world and debating. Our aim with PROUD is to foster a love of reading; to routinely provide opportunities for ‘Reading for Pleasure’; to expose students to a range of text types which engage and excite them; for staff to model correct language as role models; for staff to understand how students acquire reading knowledge and the barriers that reside when this development is not aligned to curriculum age; and for students to welcome leadership opportunities to broaden access to reading and to motivate peers. We have launched PROUD to our students through a whole school assembly where we have discussed how our students can be PROUD communicators and ensure there is an emphasis on how we communicate effectively and positively with others through these domains. We are looking forward to seeing how PROUD develops as a Trust moving forward.

Reading Areas

We are proud of our Outdoor Reading Area that has been developed here at Riverside with the support of Acorn Book Club. This is underneath our canopy area on the playground and is accessible during break and lunchtimes to all students. It is a chance for children to sit back and relax with a book if they want to escape the busy playground. There is a wide variety of fiction books, non-fiction texts and magazines that the children can enjoy. It is also a space that teachers take their class to during story time, so they can experience a story outside the classroom. The area is maintained by our School Council who help to repair books should the need arise. 

At Riverside, we have our Reading vending machine which is eye-catching within our school foyer. A child in each class is chosen termly by their class teacher for their love of reading and progress made to earn a token.  These tokens are placed into the vending machine and children are awarded with a book of their choice to take home to enjoy. The books on offer are diverse in genre and content and children are always enthusiastic to receive their award.