At Nether Edge Primary we believe reading is the master skill.

Our commitment is that every child at Nether Edge will learn to read confidently, fluently and for enjoyment. In order to fulfil this commitment we ensure that all teachers are given training and regular professional development to enable them to be expert teachers of reading.

We ensure that from the earliest opportunity, we expose our children to a rich array of stories, songs and rhymes and that throughout their time in our school, the curriculum is language rich and reading is a pleasurable and rewarding experience for all.

We want: 

• Curious readers who read widely and can speak with confidence about books they enjoy.
• Skilled readers who use reading skills to underpin their understanding of all aspects of the curriculum.
• Imaginative readers who use books to inspire understanding and progression of the world they live in.
• Interested and imaginative readers who use and apply knowledge secured in their long term memory.

Read Write Inc.

A Read Write Inc guide for parents

We believe that all children should begin to acquire the knowledge of synthetic phonics as soon as it is appropriate for their stage of development.

As a school, we commit to one systematic synthetics phonics program; Read Write Inc. Daily delivery, along with identified individual support, ensures each child progresses through the program and succeeds in learning to read and thus being able to read to learn.

All children who are working on the Read Write Inc. phonics program will bring home a Read Write Inc. storybook to read at home. This will match their current phonological awareness enabling them to consolidate and practice their reading skills at home. The book will link to the story they read in their phonics lessons and will therefore enable them to read confidently and with success at home. Children will also bring a book of their choice home for their parents to read with them. In KS1, this is called a Bed Time Book. This is a book for parents to read to children and to enjoy together. Children are not expected to read these books aloud.

Bed time books are changed on Tuesday in Year 1 and Monday in Year 2.

Children in KS1 will also bring home a reading record and a Rainbow Reading bookmark. Please sign these when your child reads and return each colour bookmark to earn the certificate! 

Children in KS2 will bring home a book that is carefully matched to their reading level. Children also have a reading challenge that needs to be signed.

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To find out more about Read Write Inc click here.

Reading for Pleasure

The simplest way to make sure we raise literate children... is to show them that reading is a pleasurable activity, and that means finding books that they enjoy, giving them access to those books, and letting them read them. 

Neil Gaiman, 2017

We are committed to nurturing a desire to read independently, to engage with others’ worlds, to wonder and ponder, and find out more about issues of interest. We are committed to nurturing readers of today and tomorrow.

‘Come Read With Me’ is a sacrosanct time at Nether Edge Primary when an adult reads to the children every day.

Across school, adults support children to identify books they enjoy by regularly sharing and discussing different texts with their classes that span a range of different genres. Children are encouraged to read regularly at home through the use of reading records. All children are able to borrow books from their classroom libraries to read and enjoy at home whilst children and parents are regularly encouraged to recommend books to one another.  

We are proud of our dedicated library space. Children enjoy borrowing books from our well-stocked library. These books match children's current reading level.

Guided Reading 

In guided reading at Nether Edge, children use a high quality anthology, which is produced in school to fulfil the intent of our curriculum. These anthologies include a range of high quality, vocabulary-rich texts including poems, plays, fiction, both classic and contemporary. Anthologies are designed to link to topics in the wider curriculum and enhance this learning. Children also have a science anthology to provide key knowledge and vocabulary linked to their learning in science. 

We teach the children several skills during guided reading sessions, such as retrieving information from the text, clarifying the meaning of new words and inferring how characters may feel, as set out in the National Curriculum and sequenced in our own curriculum.

A big part of our guided reading is learning how to become a fluent reader. To develop children’s fluency, our guided reading structure includes vast opportunity to annotate texts and understand the meaning of words, as well as reading aloud through echo and choral reading.

Because we teach guided reading every day, children at Nether Edge are immersed in exciting and engaging texts which develop their passion for reading.

Comprehension skills develop through pupils’ experience of high-quality discussion with the teacher, as well as from reading and discussing a range of stories, poems and non-fiction. All pupils must be encouraged to read widely across both fiction and non-fiction to develop their knowledge of themselves and the world they live in, to establish an appreciation and love of reading, and to gain knowledge across the curriculum. 

National Curriculum 2014