Reading
Our Approach to Reading
At Ravenbank School, we are passionate about developing a love of reading and ensuring that every child becomes a confident, fluent reader. We believe that reading is the key to unlocking learning across the curriculum and a vital skill for life, enabling children to broaden their understanding of the world and their place within it.
In the Early Years and Key Stage 1, we follow the Read Write Inc phonics programme, providing children with a strong foundation in decoding, blending, and segmenting skills. Through daily, systematic phonics teaching, children gain the essential tools they need to become confident, independent readers.
From Year 2 onwards, we use the Ready Steady Read programme to develop children’s fluency, comprehension, and vocabulary, ensuring they are supported and challenged at every stage of their reading journey.
Our school library is central to fostering a love of reading. Each year group has access to the 50 Recommended Reads, a carefully curated collection of high-quality texts designed to inspire, engage, and challenge. Alongside these, all other books are banded according to the Accelerated Reader scheme, enabling children to select texts that are matched to their reading ability while still encouraging independence and choice. Children also have access to their classroom libraries where teachers carefully select texts to ensure children's reading skills are being developed at every opportunity.
Reading is further enriched through our Expeditions, where carefully selected, high-quality texts deepen children’s knowledge and spark curiosity, linking meaningfully to our termly themes. We also use the No Outsiders resource to introduce children to a diverse range of texts, fostering understanding, respect, and inclusion while promoting equality and celebrating difference.
Our intent is to create a community of passionate, reflective readers by providing a rich, inclusive, and ambitious reading curriculum. We aim to inspire a lifelong love of reading and equip every child with the skills, knowledge, and enthusiasm to read widely, confidently, and for pleasure.
The below links will help you to select high quality literature for your children to enjoy.