At Ireland Wood we strongly believe that reading is a key life-skill that underpins learning and future success. This is why we have reading at the heart of our curriculum. Reading develops and broadens children’s language skills and vocabulary, and is key to achieving success across the curriculum. Here at Ireland Wood, we encourage children to develop a love of reading and we provide varied opportunities for children to enjoy reading for pleasure as well as for learning. Enabling our children to become fluent and confident readers is very important to us and whilst children are here at Ireland Wood, we ensure that they have opportunities to experience reading a wide variety of text types from a wide range of authors.
 

In Reception and Key Stage 1, children learn to read using our ‘Read Write Inc.’ (RWI) systematic synthetic phonics programme. They have a daily phonics lesson. You can find out more about this by looking at our ‘Read Write Inc.’ phonics curriculum page.

When children are ready they will receive a RWI Book Bag Book. This book is read in school during a 1:1 session with the teacher or class teaching assistant. The book is then taken home for the children to read to their parents. These books are changed weekly.

Once children have reached Ditty group they will participate in daily RWI guided reading sessions with books matched to their phonic knowledge. In these sessions, children build up their decoding skills, reading fluency and comprehension.

The Reception classroom has an inviting class library which is available for the children to access throughout the day. Each week children choose a ‘Reading for Pleasure’ book from this library and take it home for their grown up to read to them.

In Key Stage 1 each classroom has an inviting class library that the children may access during their daily ‘Reading for Pleasure’ sessions. The library is different to the school library as it is stocked with:
 

• The top 50 recommended reads for that age group
• School Library Service books related to topics

Children may choose to take books home from these class libraries.

Key Stage 1 classes also have a timetabled session in the school library. This gives them a chance to browse the plethora of books, read in a comfortable environment and have informal book talk with teachers, support staff and each other! Books may be taken home as a ‘Reading for Pleasure Book’.
 

RWI phonics is taught to those children who still require it. This is delivered 1:1 and is a specific intervention to ensure the gap is closed as quickly as possible.  

Key Stage 2 children, years 3,4,5 and 6, participate in whole class reading sessions that are immersed into our writing approach. These lessons focus on children developing their key reading skills.  We use ‘Reading VIPERS’ to develop reading skills;
















In our wider curriculum lessons, children apply these skills in context, reading to learn, and acquiring lots of higher-order, academic vocabulary.

Each Key Stage 2 classroom has an inviting class library that the children may access during their daily ‘Reading for Pleasure’ sessions. The library is different to the school library as it is stocked with:
 

• The top 50 recommended reads for that age group
• School Library Service books related to topics

Children may choose to take books home from these class libraries.

Key Stage 2 classes also have a timetabled session in the school library. This gives them a chance to browse the plethora of books, read in a comfortable environment and have informal book talk with teachers, support staff and each other! Books may be taken home as a ‘Reading for Pleasure Book’.
 

Recommended reads 

Here is a list of the recommended reads for each year group. How many of them can you read this year? 

• Year 1 & Year 2
• Year 3 & Year 4
• Year 5 & Year 6