Reading

Children at Southfields are encouraged to view reading as a pleasurable activity and a consistent approach to learning to read and developing reading skills is implemented across the school.

A variety of reading opportunities are offered throughout the school day including Reading Skills lessons, high quality texts linked to English units, Reading for Pleasure and access to a range of books to take home. See English section for more details.

Reading at Southfields: Developing Confident Readers

At Southfields, we are committed to ensuring every child develops into a confident and enthusiastic reader. Our reading journey begins in Early Years, where we establish a strong foundation by helping children understand the sounds within words. Through the engaging and effective Read Write Inc (RWI) program, see Phonics page, they learn to decode words and build reading confidence.

As pupils progress through Key Stage 1 and beyond, we continue to nurture their reading abilities and foster a genuine love of books. We achieve this by sharing stories, integrating topic-related books into their learning, and using literature across all subject areas.

The Read Write Inc (RWI) approach remains central to our Key Stage 1 curriculum, providing a clear and systematic route to reading fluency and speed. This solid groundwork enables children to focus on comprehension, vocabulary growth, and spelling proficiency. For pupils needing additional support, including those new to English or requiring further phonics development, we provide ongoing phonics instruction in Key Stage 2.

Our Early Years Foundation:

Nursery: We cultivate early language skills through speaking and listening activities, utilizing programs like WELLCOMM and Blast. As they progress through the year, children begin to learn initial sounds and their corresponding letters with RWI.
Reception: We explicitly teach the 44 key sounds and their letter representations (grapheme-phoneme correspondences or GPCs) using the RWI program. Our aim is for all children to master these foundational elements by the time they enter Year 1.

Developing Readers Throughout the School:

From Year 1 onwards, we immerse children in exciting, high-quality literature that mirrors their experiences and broadens their understanding of the world. Daily phonics instruction continues with Read Write Inc (RWI) for those still developing these essential skills, alongside targeted interventions like Fresh Start in Key Stage 2.

Our ultimate aim is to equip all our pupils with the reading skills necessary for academic success and, more importantly, to inspire a lifelong passion for reading.

Reading Skills

Reading skills lessons follow a three lesson sequence and link to books being used in English lessons. These are accessed by pupils who have passed the phonics screen and completed that RWI programme.

Each reading domain (listed below) is explicitly taught through these lessons using our Reading character logos. Strategies of how to answer questions relating to these domains are delivered through high quality Book Talk:

Vocabulary
Inference,
Predicting,
Retrieval,
Summarising

Reading Roles Characters

Helping your child with reading at home

Supporting your child's reading at home, from Nursery through Year 6, is crucial. Listening to them read and engaging in discussions about their books significantly develops their comprehension skills. Equally important is sharing books together, which cultivates a love of reading and positions you as a reader too. Aiming for at least 20 minutes of daily reading exposes children to a vast amount of vocabulary annually, which underpins fluency and supports learning across the curriculum, benefiting their mental well-being and understanding of the world. Evidence strongly links reading for pleasure with greater academic achievement, smoother transitions to secondary school, and enhanced career opportunities later in life.

At Southfields, children will bring home a weekly reading book for focused practice and a library book for enjoyment. Children on the phonics scheme will also receive tailored texts. Please record all reading done at home in their reading journal.

Assessment

At Southfields, we regularly assess each child's reading progress and attainment to ensure they are reading appropriately challenging books.

Our ‘Southfields Reading Aspirations’, derived from the National Curriculum for each year group and are supported by a carefully matched book banding system, outline the targets for reaching the expected standard. These individual goals are shared with children during reading sessions and recorded in their reading record (kept at school) and reading diary (for parents).

To ensure consistent and reliable judgments, we also use PiRA (Progress in Reading Assessment), a termly assessment for ages 4–11. This externally validated tool, standardised on over 10,000 learners, allows us to effectively benchmark performance and track progress against national averages.

Inclusion

Our school aims to provide for all children, a curriculum that allows for appropriate adaptations. This may be by outcome, task, resources, support,
interest or ability groupings as appropriate.

Any child with identified SEND or in receipt of pupil premium funding may have work additional to and different from their peers in order to access the curriculum dependent upon their individual needs. Children who have English as a second language are given extra support, as necessary, with an EAL intervention, in class from teachers or from interpreters, if possible, to enable them to gain the knowledge, understanding and skills set out in the English Curriculum.

Children who are ‘Newly Arrived in the UK’ are baselined on entry to the school to assess their level of understanding in English. Individual Language plans are drawn up and interventions immediately put into place for those that require it. Intensive support is provided to ensure these children acquire the basic language and communication skills they need in order to participate fully in all aspects of school life.

Southfields Primary School

SouthfieldsPrimary School