At Great Kingshill, we believe reading is fundamental to every child’s success. We aim to ensure all pupils become confident, fluent readers who develop a love of reading and can access the full curriculum and wider world.

We deliver a structured and ambitious reading curriculum, underpinned by the Essential Letters and Sounds (ELS) phonics programme. Daily, high-quality teaching ensures children develop secure decoding skills, read common exception words and build fluency and automaticity. Reading books are closely matched to taught sounds, and same day ‘keep up’ support ensures no child falls behind.

In line with the National Curriculum, our intent is for all pupils to:

• Apply phonics knowledge and skills to the decoding of words, both familiar and unfamiliar. To read common exception words by sight.  To be able to sight-read many common words.
• To recognise word changes when prefixes and suffixes are applied.
• To develop pleasure in reading, motivation to read and to develop their vocabulary and understanding of what they read. To listen and read a wide range of texts. To become familiar with key stories and traditional tales. To draw on their own understanding of the world and apply this to their reading.
• To discuss a wide range of texts and to express their views. To draw links between books and to discuss favourite books, words and phrases and to use dictionaries to check understanding. To experience texts set out in a variety of ways and for a variety of purposes.
• To be able to recommend books, enjoy poetry, and to read confidently aloud with expression, tone and intonation.

As pupils progress, we teach reading through a range of high-quality texts, including fiction, non-fiction and picture books. Lessons focus on the explicit teaching of vocabulary, retrieval and inference, alongside opportunities for discussion and written response. Fluency is prioritised through modelled and repeated reading, enabling pupils to read with accuracy, confidence and expression.

Children who are not yet meeting age-related expectations, including those within the lowest 20%, receive swift, targeted and effective support. This includes daily reading with a dedicated Reading LSA, carefully planned phonics and reading interventions that are matched to individual needs. Pupils’ progress is regularly assessed and monitored to ensure interventions are having a measurable impact, with precise gaps in decoding, fluency and comprehension quickly identified. Additional opportunities are provided for pupils to practise reading using closely matched texts, ensuring they build confidence, fluency and independence as quickly as possible. The impact of this is that we support pupils in closing the gaps in their ability to read.

In Early Years and Key Stage 1, pupils take home a phonically matched book alongside a shared text to promote language development and reading for pleasure. In Key Stage 2, our home reading project offer continues to develop comprehension and engagement with high-quality texts.

We actively promote reading for pleasure through a rich reading environment and a well-stocked library, ensuring all pupils have access to a wide range of texts that reflect their interests and needs.