Every child will learn to read and love to read. We read as a reader, we read as a writer and we read for pleasure.
We are passionate about reading at Manor Way. We invest heavily in making sure that the children have the best possible books available to them. We believe that providing greater access to a wide range of brilliantly written, content-appropriate, engaging books is the most effective way of improving standards of receptive and expressive language in children.
The aim of our approach is to expand vocabulary, deepen comprehension, sharpen authorial technique and nurture a love of stories and knowledge. The medium term planning for English lessons is based on quality whole class texts. This drives the learning throughout the term, in comprehension work, grammar focuses and opportunities for writing.
The children have a regular weekly slot to change their home reading book, plus extra slots are available for those enthusiastic readers and devourers of books. We also have a team of committed volunteers who are helping children to develop a love of reading.
We value the support that we receive with parents and know that this partnership is vital in developing great reading habits and fabulous lifelong readers.
For early readers, this will mean that they will read the same book a number of times in one week. This helps our young readers to practise reading the words in their book over and over again to help build their fluency.
For those children who leave key stage 1 having not achieved the statutory phonics screening daily phonics sessions continue, where appropriate. These children may also be identified by the SENDCO and additional further support is put in place as needed to remove barriers to reading for that child.
In Key Stage 2, children whose reading age is below that of where it should be read daily with an adult in school, providing them with the opportunity to further develop their speed, accuracy, expression and phrasing.
Our library is a peaceful and inviting environment which is designed to inspire our children to read for pleasure.
The children at Manor Way visit the library once a week with their class and teacher. During the session, they are encouraged to make recommendations to peers and to look for books which peak both their reading and personal interests.
Our library also displays information about a new author every month and copies of texts written by the chosen author.
Our library is also home to our Reading Buddy team. Three times a week, our Year 5 Reading Buddies spend time listening to Year 1 and 2 pupils reading their banded books in the library. The aim of the Reading Buddy programme is to challenge our Year 5 readers to support younger learners and to provide more opportunities for our emerging readers to practise their reading fluency.
We are very excited to introduce our class ‘Reading Bears’. Each class has its own bear, complete with a personalised book bag, a diary, and a selection of books—ready for children to enjoy some reading time together at home.
Each child will have the opportunity to bring the bear home for a few nights for a special reading sleepover!
We’ve even included copies of your class WATaPoet poems so children can get some extra practice and work towards achieving their WATaPoet badge!
Please note: As some of the books are quite long, children are not expected to read all of them (unless they want to!).