Our Reading Ambition

Reading is a skill for life and learning to read is a key part of preparing our pupils for their next stages in education and adulthood.

We will ensure all pupils receive quality first teaching of reading. Our ambition is to enable all pupils to:

• Read words and texts fluently with a good understanding – for pleasure, to communicate and for information
• Find pleasure in a book
• Acquire a wide vocabulary by reading independently and being read to by an adult

Learning to read falls under all 5 of our curriculum drivers for pupils to lead happy, independent and successful lives.

INDEPENDENCE – FUNCTIONALITY – CHOICE – VOICE – JOY OF LIVING

Milton’s Reading Strategy

• We believe that with the right support, every pupil regardless of background or special need can learn to read.
• We know some pupils will not find learning to read easy, but we won’t give up.
• We ensure the teaching of reading is high profile in all classes each day.
• We will timetable daily opportunities for pupils to read independently, read aloud and to be read to by an adult.
• We systematically teach phonics by showing fidelity to Read Write Inc programme.
• We have a clear pre-phonics programme which is taught daily to support our pupils to tune into sounds.
• We have clear systems to get pupils reading and keep pupils reading.
• We have a systematic 4 stage programme moving from pre-phonics, phonics, fluency and then reading widely.
• We have regular staff training to ensure staff are skilled in the teaching of phonics and reading.
• We maintain a culture of reading for pleasure through classroom book areas, story time, book club and reading events.

We collaborate with families to extend our reading culture into the home.

How is reading taught at Milton?

We take a stage not age approach to the teaching of reading at Milton.

All classes have dedicated reading lesson on the timetable each day. During this lesson pupils will be taught at the stage appropriate to their reading development.

The stages of the reading curriculum at Milton are:

Milton’s approach to teaching Phonics

Read Write Inc is the phonics scheme taught from EYFS onwards. All pupils who require phonics teaching are taught daily. The nature of our pupils’ special needs sometimes means that our older pupils are still ‘early readers’ and require daily phonics teaching. The RWI programme of study is progressive and builds upon prior knowledge and learning.

In addition to the daily phonics session our younger pupils have ‘pinny time’ to support the retention of phonic knowledge. During pinny time pupils revisit learnt phonemes and practice blending skills. This opportunity for overlearning allows our pupils to develop automaticity.

Pupils on our phonics programme are given a Read Write Inc phonetically decodable reading book. Teachers carefully match the reading book to each pupil’s secure phonic level. This ensures pupils have the knowledge they require to blend and feel success.

Phonics assessments are carried out each half term by our phonics and reading leaders. These assessments are used to identify pupils who may need a little extra support.

Our school phonics leads and trust Director for Reading and Phonics regularly monitor the quality of phonics teaching and ensure that books are well matched for each pupil

How do we encourage reading for pleasure?

We aim for all our pupils to experience the joy and pleasure of reading and being read to. Through establishing a culture of reading for pleasure we want to open up new worlds for our pupils and provide them opportunity to use their imagination. We recognise that for many of our pupils having time to read a book and/or being read to supports their mental health and well-being.   

Classrooms in all key stages at Milton have a book area with high quality books to capture the interest of pupils. Pupils are welcome to take a book from the shelf home.

We believe that it is important that pupils in all key stages have the opportunity to be read to by an adult. For this reason, all classes come together at the end of the day to enjoy storytime (lower and upper school) and class read (upper school).

All classes end the day with a book. In lower and middle school we have story time and in upper school we have class read time.

All pupils are welcome to attend our lunchtime book club.

Turning the page: 50 Milton reads

We have carefully curated a list of 50 books we would like pupils to read or be read to during their journey at Milton. The books have been selected to:

• encourage a love of reading
• expose pupils to a wide range of vocabulary
• introduce them to new genres and authors

By reading these books to pupils in class we hope to influence their future reading choices.

Milton Reading Leads