We love reading at Croxby! Speak to our children, and you will find out why it is important to read lots! Reading means so much to us that we have named our academy house teams after authors.

We have aligned our teaching of reading in Year 2-6 with Jane Considine's 'Hooked on Books' approach. Children take part in 'Book Talk' a whole class guided reading session. In those 'Book Talk sessions your will find our children reading by themselves, reading with a partner, reading as a whole class or listening to the class teacher model reading. Children use the 'Reading Rainbow' to read and respond to texts through different lenses within 3 different zones of reading: The Fantastics, The Stylistics and The Analytics. Book Talk is key to developing oracy skills. Children collaborate in groups using sentence stems and high utility words to develop a Book Talk response. Once a week the children complete an independent reading response activity. In addition to this, children use Reading Plus, which is an online reading scheme designed to develop fluency in reading as well as vocabulary, comprehension skills, stamina and motivation for reading.

If you were to visit 'Croxby Way' lessons in the afternoon you would be likely to see the children reading to develop knowledge in the foundation subjects. Every class ends each day with story time.

In the EYFS, the children spend the first few weeks of the academy absorbing themselves in picture books to give a focus of speaking and listening and attention.  Once they have secured knowledge of the first set of sounds taught in phonics, the children are assigned reading books via Bug Club Phonics that match their phonics acquisition.  

In Year 1, children use texts from the scheme Bug Club Phonics and books used match their phonic acquisition ability. Reading lessons are an extension of their phonics lesson and a stimulus for their writing lessons. Children read a book over a week, orally rehearsing the sounds which will be taught throughout the book and keywords daily. Teachers will model reading the book using expression and children will imitate this and read out loud in order to develop fluency. 

Whole class reading books are carefully selected in EYFS and Year 1 to ensure we are able to create a language rich environment which develops oracy skills. Books are chosen for a variety of reasons: repetition of phrases and sentences and books which focus upon elements of the curriculum in order to develop the children’s cultural capital.