Reading
At Hempshill Hall we are passionate about reading - not only does regular reading encourage academic success across the curriculum, but it also provides a world of entertainment and escapism! We want our children to become enthusiastic and engaged readers, and to develop a life-long love of books. We introduce the children to a range of good quality fiction, non-fiction and poetry books through our whole-class, core-text approach to teaching reading, and during their weekly guided reading session.
In the early stages of reading, we teach children to decode words using phonic skills as their main approach, alongside which we teach sight vocabulary. Once grasped, the focus for developing reading is understanding and comprehension. Your child will read with their class teacher regularly during their guided reading session and 1:1 sessions.
Throughout their time at Hempshill Hall, the children will experience a number of events that promote reading for both education and pleasure.
The English Policies can be found on the English page.
Reading together at home is so important
Across the school, children will take home a book that is suitable matched to either their phonics phase or their reading level along with a reading for pleasure book. The reading for pleasure book may be one that is to be shared with an adult, please see below how you can help with your child’s reading at home.
Children need support to develop the habit and love of reading. There are a number of ways you can help you child with their reading at home.
These three main strategies support readers immensely:
- Reading aloud
- Time to read as a family
- Book chat
Time and space to hear stories and to read and talk informally about what you’re reading makes a difference to children’s pleasure in their reading. If you would like more ideas on how to read with your child, here is a booklet that we have put together:
A couple of years ago, we introduced the Star Books. These are lists of books that we feel are quality texts for each year group. Please take a look at the list for your child’s year group if you are looking for something to read. These are also printed in the back of their Reading Comment Books.
To find out more about how we teach early reading, click here to visit our page on phonics at Hempshill Hall.
In KS2 the children move on to Accelerated Reader where they can quiz on books that they have read. The programme also assesses what level book the children should be reading to ensure that they are reading texts that are suitable matched to their reading ability.
If you wish to check a book is on the AR scheme and is the right range for you child, please visit: www.arbookfind.co.uk.
Here is the link to AR for the quiz website if your child wishes to quiz at home:
For more information about our reading curriculum, please visit the Reading Spine page.