The children have access to a very wide variety of fiction, non-fiction and poetry all around the school and we help them to become confident readers, using methods which match the material and the purposes for which they are reading. Where relevant, we present them with challenging texts which broaden their perspectives and extend their thinking; becoming confident eager and enthusiastic readers who are engaged in their own learning journey through reading. To teach phonics, we use Little Wandle Letters and Sounds which is a government validated phonics programme. It is robustly taught and the children also receive reading sessions which focus on decoding, prosody (expression and intonation) and comprehension. Please see the separate phonics page on the website for further information.
It is our intention that our children leave with a solid tome of knowledge about literature and authors. We have very carefully selected the texts we use for our core reading spine to ensure this is the case. From Twelfth Night in Year 6 to The Wild Robot in Year 4 to The Fox and the Star in Year 2 to Shark in the Park in Nursery, we have chosen these texts to guarantee an enriching reading experience.
Reading for pleasure is important to us at Latchmere. We have an amazing library where the children can sit on comfy sofas and peruse books organised according to the Dewey Decimal System. We also have reading for pleasure timetabled so that everyone can read books for enjoyment. Our recommended reading lists are a great source of book suggestions and we have focus authors for each year group too.