Reading and Phonics at William Torbitt Primary School
We love reading at our school!
It is the school’s aim to develop and create passionate readers for life.
To promote the love of reading of at our school, we:
 Read aloud in class from EYFS up to Year 6 and are introduced to new authors and styles
of writing.
 Encourage to read for pleasure and establish appreciation and love of reading.
 Have a variety of texts in the classroom for us to choose from.
 Have book corners, displays and a library for us to enjoy reading our books.
 ‘Stop, Drop and Read’- this is where the whole school including office staff and
caretakers stop and read at the same time. A bell is rung and everyone stops what they
are doing and reads for 15-20 minutes.
 Have ‘Book of the Moment’. This is where we have a book/ story to focus on for a short
time and it is also shared and discussed in assemblies.
 Carry out author searches, which are linked to the books we are reading in class. We
research other books, similar stories and genres linked to core text we are studying.
 Have Reading Journals to promote reading at home, and in them, we record what we
like to read.
 Always take part in World Book Day and other focussed reading events for example:
‘Read for my school’.
 Every term, Early years, Year 1, 2 and 3 invite the parents in to share Books for Breakfast
with us. Drinks and biscuits are provided. Sessions last about 30 minutes.
 On Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays from 12:30-1:00pm we can all attend the Big
Book Club takes place. It is open to all pupils.
We learn how to read in many ways at our school:
 There is regular reading with children in Early Years, Year 1 and 2 , as well as lower
attaining children in Year 3 that are working below expected levels.
 We do paired reading with peers or adults.
 We take part in a Peer Mentoring programme where some of us are assigned Reading
Buddies.
 Phonics teaching.
 Modelling of reading strategies happens in most lessons.
 Regular Guided reading in small groups.
 Shared reading with big books and enlarged texts.
 Cross curricular reading (We don’t just read in our English lessons!).
 Independent reading (reading for pleasure).
 Individual reading.
Reading and Phonics at William Torbitt Primary School
Guided reading/ Individual reading
We have regular guided reading session which are delivered using the Reciprocal Teaching
approach. This is done in groups as well as individual reading for pupils who are at the
earlier stages of learning to read. Our teachers record our progress as we read. We also
have reading journals or home liaison books diaries and we, our teachers and our parents
write comments to each other about how well we are doing.
We have a lot of books to choose from for guided reading and individual reading. At William
Torbitt we use a mixture of real books and reading scheme books, which have been
organised into a colour banding system for the younger pupils.
Book Area
We have a dedicated book area in every classroom. We can choose books from here to read
in the classroom at different times during the day.
School Library/ Mobile Library
We can visit our library regularly to choose books that we enjoy. There is a range of
fantastic fiction and non-fiction books to choose from. Our Junior Librarians work hard to
ensure we have a good selection of books by popular authors. They ensure our library is well
organised and used.
Each month the school is visited by the Redbridge Mobile Library, so we can choose from an
even wider range of books to take home.
Parents in Partnership
Our mums, dads and family members come along to our Parent Workshops to find out
about how to support us at home with our reading. Our parents can also come in to the
school for ‘Books for Breakfast’ where we can share all sorts of books with them and before
school. We are expected to read at home every night and to bring our books to school every
day.
Teachers as Readers
Each day our teachers read to us. We sometimes have a class novel, or a book that is linked
tour topic.
Reading and Phonics at William Torbitt Primary School
Reading Buddies (English Leaders)
We have Reading Buddies. Year 6 and Year 5 children read with younger children and help
to apply all of the strategies they are learning and read unknown words by segmenting and
blending.
The older children teach the younger children to talk about the text and the illustrations and
ask questions to see if the younger children understand what they are reading. This helps to
develop everyone’s reading confidence!
Reading across the Curriculum
We enjoy using reading skills in every lesson and our teachers provide opportunities for us
to do so in all subjects. In very class there is a book corner filled with books to support our
curriculum topics and for us to enjoy.
Teaching Phonics – Letters and Sounds
At William Torbitt we use ‘Letters and sounds’ to teach Phonics. We have a daily phonics
session where we learn about how to read and write using our phonic knowledge.
We play a lot of different phonic games which help us to understand how sounds make
words and we use words to make sentences. We use the Interactive Whiteboard and our
mini whiteboard to play games and learn new phonemes and graphemes.
If you would like to know more about reading at William Torbitt
Primary School, feel free to contact Mrs Farrow (our English Leader)
who will be able to give you more information.