Reading Plus is used four times a week for 30-minute sessions to develop fluency, comprehension, vocabulary and reading stamina. The programme uses ongoing assessment to create personalised learning pathways, ensuring that each pupil receives appropriately pitched challenge and support. Through independent reading, retrieval and comprehension activities, pupils build the confidence and skills needed to access the wider curriculum and become fluent, enthusiastic readers.
Alongside Reading Plus, teachers use assessment information from the programme to identify specific areas for development. This enables staff to provide targeted small-group interventions focused on fluency, comprehension, vocabulary, reading stamina and key reading strategies. By combining personalised digital learning with focused teacher-led support, we ensure that every child receives the challenge and intervention needed to make strong progress.
Reading Plus is supplemented by two 30-minute whole-class reading lessons each week. During these sessions, pupils engage with high-quality texts and develop essential reading skills, including vocabulary, retrieval, inference, prediction and explanation. Through rich discussion and carefully planned questioning, children are encouraged to think deeply about texts, justify their opinions and explore an author's choices. These shared experiences help pupils become thoughtful, analytical and enthusiastic readers.
Our school library plays a central role in fostering a love of reading. Children regularly visit the library to explore a wide range of fiction, non-fiction and poetry, selecting books that match both their interests and reading ability. Reading books are carefully matched to pupils' assessed reading levels and phonics knowledge, and are regularly reviewed as children progress.
To support reading development, pupils are heard read regularly by teaching assistants and staff. In Key Stage 1 and Lower Key Stage 2, pupils are typically heard read weekly, while older children are heard at least fortnightly as they develop greater independence. Any pupil at risk of falling behind receives additional support and is heard read daily wherever possible, ensuring that progress is closely monitored and support is provided promptly.
Every day concludes with a dedicated 15-minute class story session, where reading is enjoyed purely for pleasure. This valued time allows children to relax, listen and become immersed in high-quality texts read aloud by their teacher. Through stories, poetry and class novels, we nurture a love of reading, broaden children's literary experiences and create opportunities for enjoyment, wonder and escapism. We believe that reading should be more than a skill; it should be a source of comfort, curiosity and lifelong enjoyment.
Reading at Bramingham
At Bramingham we teach reading with a variety of approaches. In classes you would see a mixture of whole class reading, children reading in groups, children reading with buddies and children reading individually to adults. We love reading! To continue our diverse approach, we do not use one particular reading scheme either. Our books are selected from Collins, Heineman, Nelson, Oxford Reading Tree and a mix of contemporary and classic literature. We feel that this gives our children a window into the vast amount of wonderful, varied literature and encourages a real love of reading which we are proud to endorse.
A child needs to be able to read fluently and with understanding at an early age. Children are encouraged to read, listen to and discuss many different types of fiction and non-fiction. We encourage books to be taken home and we ask your help in hearing your child read as often as possible. Each class will read a number of class readers throughout the year. The choices available to each year group often have an underlying theme; these may relate to issues the children may encounter in life or have covered in their Creative Curriculum lessons. An example of this is "Friend or Foe" by Michael Morpurgo which relates to the Year 6 topic, WW2.
Our Reading Journey
Reading in the Early Years and KS1
Children in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 are taught to read using a variety of strategies:
- To decode unfamiliar words by using their phonological knowledge
- To use pictures in the book so that they will understand what the unfamiliar word might say
- To read onto the next word so that the context will help them to understand what the unfamiliar word might say
All children take home two books per week. One is a book chosen by the child and may be changed as regularly as the child wishes. The second book is chosen by the class teacher, at the child’s level and matches the phonic sounds that they are currently learning in class
Our Reading Journey
Reading in KS2
Reading comprehension strategies focus on the learners’ understanding of written text. Once children move through the school, and have developed decoding and fluency skills confidently, they are taught a range of techniques which enable them to comprehend the meaning of what they read. These can include: inferring meaning from context; summarising or identifying key points; evaluating the authors choice and developing their own questioning strategies.
At Bramingham, the children are taught each of these strategies with the help of our canine friends! Each dog, representing a different comprehension skill, will have their own set of question types for the children to become familiar with.
