Home Reading
At Windmill, we believe that reading is fundamental to children’s development. Research demonstrates the links between good reading skills from an early age and future success in life. That is why we want all our children to be readers, be passionate about reading and develop a love of books. Reading at home, and hearing positive views about reading from parents and carers, plays a big part in this.
Children are encouraged by class teachers and school leaders to read at least three times per week with an adult at home. All children who achieve this each week are rewarded with a reading band. Children in Years 5 and 6 who do not achieve the school standard receive additional reading support in Friday Reading Club. The number of children who achieve the school standard is collected weekly and displayed as a reading star outside classrooms. A ‘league table’ is published once a half term to encourage competition and maintain high standards.
Children are provided with a coloured ‘banded’ reading book to take home to read with an adult. Our banded reading books are from the Oxford Reading Tree scheme and are appropriate to each child’s stage of reading as they are determined by a half-termly reading assessment.
Once children have progressed to becoming a ‘free reader’, they will bring home a book from a wide selection of ‘free reader’ books we have in school.
To ensure consistency between home and school, teachers place a reading target, linked to what is being covered in lessons, in the home-school reading diary three times per half term.
Additionally, a reading sticker with your child’s book band colour is also placed in the home-school diary. These stickers contain questions and targets to be used by any adult that reads with the child at home.
Both stickers are designed to help support your child’s reading at home.
Please follow the link to the Oxford Owl website for more information on the reading scheme and levels.
Reading for Pleasure
To help foster a life-long love of reading, at Windmill, reading for pleasure is encouraged by:
- All children in Foundation 2 receiving a book on their 5th birthday. This is then brought back to school to share on their 6th birthday in Year 1.
- Children in Years 5 and 6 having the opportunity to apply for a Reading Leader position, which involves the organisation of the daily Reading Hut at lunchtimes. These children promote a love of a reading and support children in finding appropriate reading material.
- Children having the opportunity to be a Language Leader, where they support children who have English as an Additional Language by reading every morning with them.
- KS2 children having the opportunity to partake in Non-Fiction Friday, where non-fiction books are shared in the playground during a Friday lunchtime. Children are rewarded for the information they record and the new vocabulary they learn. This is managed by the Reading Leaders. Children who have English as an Additional Language have the opportunity to explore bilingual texts.
- First News Fun Club running after school on a Friday, where children are given the opportunity to explore topics and issues that interest them, culminating in a termly presentation that draws upon both reading and oracy skills.
- Teachers and school staff acting as role models by promoting a life-long love of reading.
- World Book Day being celebrated annually. Staff and children are encouraged to embrace the theme and dress accordingly as a character from a beloved book. Each year, a core text is chosen for the whole school, providing children the chance to explore a different text type. World Book Day offers cross-curricular opportunities, particularly with Art and Design, and all children receive a free book from school.