Why Reading Matters

Reading is fundamental to education and essential for pupils’ success across all subjects. Proficiency in reading, writing, and spoken language helps pupils develop communication skills needed for learning, training, and future employment. Pupils who struggle to read often face challenges throughout their education, which is why Redhill School is committed to raising literacy standards for all.

Our Aims

By the end of Year 6, pupils should be fluent and confident readers, ready to meet the demands of secondary school across the curriculum. We work in line with the Department for Education’s Reading Framework and Ofsted’s Education Inspection Framework to ensure pupils start secondary school prepared to engage with challenging texts and develop a lifelong love of reading.

Targeted Catch-Up Support

We know that some pupils need extra help to catch up with their reading. Organising effective catch-up teaching can be challenging, but it is vital. Our school leadership and SEND coordinators ensure that pupils identified as needing support receive timely, targeted interventions delivered by trained staff. Interventions are carefully monitored for impact and are time-limited to maximise progress.

Reading in Lessons

Effective reading instruction is a key part of our lessons. We use explicit teaching and conscious effort to develop pupils as confident readers who can understand and enjoy a wide range of literature and non-fiction. Our lessons:

· Introduce diverse, challenging texts pupils might not choose independently

· Model fluent, expressive reading and decoding strategies

· Encourage deep thinking and discussion about texts

· Support pupils with vocabulary pre-teaching and comprehension checks

We aim to create readers, not just pupils who can decode words, fostering excitement and engagement with reading. Through stories, poems, non-fiction texts and discussions, pupils experience the wonder of reading and develop the ability to construct coherent mental models of texts, helping them understand meaning deeply and independently.

Practical Reading Toolkit Used in Lessons

To support reading development across the curriculum, teachers use a range of proven strategies, including:

· Chunking Texts: Breaking texts into manageable sections to aid comprehension

· Use of Visualisers: Supporting guided reading and modelling through technology

· Pre-Teaching Vocabulary: Using “Do Now” activities to introduce key words and activate prior knowledge

· Active Reading Strategies: Teaching pupils to skim, scan, and zoom in on texts effectively

· Reading Rulers: Helping pupils focus and reduce cognitive load on complex texts

· Key Questioning: Using questions to support comprehension and critical thinking

· Comprehension Skills: Encouraging pupils to infer, clarify, predict, summarise, and question texts

· Retrieval Practice: Regularly recalling and rehearsing learning to strengthen memory

Supporting Pupils Who Need to Catch Up

For pupils who have not yet met reading expectations, we provide carefully structured support to develop decoding, fluency, and comprehension skills. This ensures they can access the full curriculum and avoid falling further behind. Our catch-up teaching is carefully organised, delivered by trained staff, and closely monitored for effectiveness.

Partnership with Families

We encourage families to support reading at home and provide guidance to help pupils develop reading skills and habits beyond the classroom.