Reading
Intent
At Lace Hill Academy, the teaching of literacy is a high priority. Our teachers are role models to the children and share their passion and love for reading. We aim to expose our children to a variety of progressive text types and encourage reading for pleasure. We want our children to understand that reading unlocks new learning. Being a frequent reader is associated with a range of academic, social and emotional benefits. Wide recreational reading expands our children’s knowledge about the world, as well as their understanding of subject-specific academic and technical vocabulary. Such knowledge helps our children access the whole curriculum. We want reading at Lace Hill to reflect the school community as well as providing a window into communities around the world. We aim to expose our children to a diverse range of literature and authors in fiction, non-fiction and poetry.
Our reading curriculum is designed around four substantive concepts ( arrows pointing towards the star): fluency, comprehension, vocabulary and word reading (decoding and sight reading). Through our reading curriculum, children are also exposed to disciplinary concepts (points on the star): development of vocabulary, summarising, inference, retrieval skills, decoding skills, prediction and explanation. This is how children learn to be successful readers and achieve our intent below also shown in the golden tail).
- I can read fluently
- I can share the love of reading with those around me
- I enjoy a variety of books
- I feel confident to explore and use vocabulary I have read
- I use reading to deepen my understanding
- I can visualise what I read and make connection to the world around me
Implementation
Teachers explicitly teach reading fluency to generate a love of reading and develop comprehension skills. Phonics is a supporting strategy for teaching reading and is taught through Sounds Write in EYFS and Key Stage One. In both KS1 and KS2, classes have daily whole class reading sessions to develop the love of reading and skills in understanding the text. Our texts are specifcally chosen to meet the needs of our cohorts, promoting equality, diversity and inclusion as well as pupil voice.
We encourage reading for pleasure in our school - we want our children to be true readers, not just children who can read. Our fantastic staff are role models for our children. We believe that passion for reading is infectious. Using book recommendations in the classroom and assemblies are a great tool to help spread enthusiasm for reading. Our children enjoy daily stories as well our Lace Hill Book Club session which is held every Friday across KS1 and KS2. This involves activities such as book recommendations, parent readers, community visits and more!
Within our school, we have a well-stocked library, which includes decodable phonics books that match our Sounds Write phonics scheme, Accelerated Reader books and a wide range of library books covering fiction and non-fiction. In each classroom, there is a book corner, which contains books linked to their current curriculum in English, Science and foundation subjects. The purpose of the corner, is to further capture children’s imagination, promote a positive culture of reading and book talk within the classroom setting. We also celebrate our class novels and promote engagement with the story through class learning displays.
At the heart of our school, just as you step through the door, we have developed a reading cafe area which is well stocked with a range of texts that link to book recommendations, current affairs, themed weeks such as black history and a range of dual language books. Children also have access to First News ( a newspaper designed for primary aged pupils) as well as a range of audio books. Flooding the environment with high quality literature supports the reading culture of our school.
Book Warmers Autumn 1
Reading Books
EYFS to Y2
Our pupils have the opportunity to take home a variety of decodable books including:
Sounds~write books
Dandelion books
Each week the children in EYFS and Key Stage One will be following systematic phonics teaching. In EYFS they will be learning the Initial Code. From Y1 and in Y2 the children will continue following the systematic phonics teaching but will work through the Extended Code – looking at ‘same sounds different spelling’ and ‘same spelling different sounds’ this will be when the children learn how to read and spell words using a variety of different alphabet code.
Children from EYFS to Y2 will take home a variety of reading books to share at home including:
A phonic book matched to the phonic code that they have previously been taught
A wordless book for EYFS children - This book will continue to develop confidence and a love of reading as well as support children’s comprehension of what they are seeing in the context of a book.
A book from our accelerated reader library by the end of Y2- This will be a book that the children can read independently using their segmenting and blending skills and enables them to develop their comprehension. These books will be at the right level for each child as they will be given out based on their star test outcomes
A reading for pleasure choice
Supporting your child to read at home

Reading at home, every day, has the biggest impact on your child’s learning and progress. Please find below some suggestions that will support you with supporting your child.
Read as much as possible with your child at home. Remember to fill in your child's reading record every time you read together. If you read five out of seven times a week your child will be able to go into our reading raffle draw that is drawn each week in our Celebration Assembly.
When your child starts to learn to read and write we do not use letter names. We say the sounds very precisely as demonstrated in the video below.
Use letter sounds rather than letter names with their children at home. This will avoid confusion for the children and will reinforce the learning being done at school.
Avoid adding an extra vowel when pronouncing letter sounds e.g. ‘buh’ ‘duh’
When listening to your child read encourage them to have-a-go at unfamiliar words by encouraging them to: “Say the sounds and read the word”.
Key Stage Two
Children in Years 3 to 6 will be able to take home a book of their choice from the school library. They will also take home a book linked to Accelerated Reader. This book will be in line with the child's STAR test and chosen to complement their reading and comprehension ability. Children will then be able to log on to AR to complete a quiz about the book
Impact
Children leave Lace Hill Academy as confident readers, who have the key skills and knowledge necessary for the next stage of their learning, as defined by our reading 'golden box'.
The impact of our reading curriculum is measured through:
- Pupil outcomes where evidence is gathered in the following ways: pupil voice interviews, learning walks, discussions with staff, parent surveys etc.
- Using formative and summative assessment to accurately measure children's reading standards against the National Curriculum.
- Monitoring of progress from year to year ensuring pupils remain ‘on track’ from their starting point
- Identifying clear next steps in school improvement, which are determined by a cycle of monitoring, evaluating and reviewing.
Impact
After contacting the author of our class novel, Jenny McLachlan, she was amazed at our learning journey which Mr West shared with her. In response, she sent a video thanking the children for entering 'The Land of Roar' with her. We are so grateful for the video and the children loved listening to her story of how and why she created 'The Land of Roar'. She also showed the children a sneak preview of how she plans and her exciting new projects she has in the pipeline.
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Catchpin Street
Buckingham
MK18 7RR
