Reading at Millennium

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At Millennium, we prioritise reading across the school and believe it is fundamental to success within our curriculum and beyond. Developing strong reading skills is key for all children to be able to access the full curriculum and to give them the best possible outcomes at all stages of their education and into their adult lives. We work hard to promote and embed a love of reading in every child.

In Reception and Year One, children learn to read through our Read, Write Inc. (RWI) Phonics Scheme and access to carefully matched Oxford Press University reading books, which give them the opportunity to practise the phonics they have learnt. The aim is for children to be successful and to realise early on that they are readers, which brings confidence and excitement to young children as well as a sense of accomplishment. In school, they have adult-led reading sessions throughout the week. Children are introduced to their new book, they learn to decode the words and ensure that they can start to build a level of fluency when reading it. We then focus on developing children's comprehension of what is happening within the text. At school, children have paper versions of the book and at the end of all the adult-led school sessions a copy is sent home. We ask all parents to support their child's reading development by listening to them read every day at home and by showing this by writing a short comment in their reading record to say how they have got on and where they need help. 

As the children move beyond the need for explicit phonics teaching, they begin whole class reading. For the majority of children, this is in Year Two. We use carefully chosen texts, which build children's vocabulary and which, when appropriate, are linked to our curriculum topics. Reading sessions are a combination of practising and continuing to develop fluency skills, different reading skills as well as deepening the children's understanding of texts. Children have lots of opportunities for discussion, to work in groups as well as to express their thoughts in writing. 

Our Whole Class Reading curriculum and our planning of lessons is based on  the reading content domains from the National Curriculum to ensure a broad coverage in our reading lessons.

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How we promote reading at Millennium 

• We read daily with your child at school and add additional sessions for those who need them.
• We expect children to read at home daily and to record this on their reading records
• We celebrate reading through displays across the school.
• We invite authors into school to work with every child and share tips and stories with them.
• We have book sales to encourage children to read new books and to raise money to be able to buy more books for school.
• We have 'book character dress up days to help us celebrate World Book Day.
• We have reading based assemblies.
• We invite parents in for parent reading mornings.