St Margaret's Reading Spine

Through our core reading spine, children are exposed to high quality fiction, non-fiction and poetry. These texts underpin our writing curriculum and are intended to develop learners with a love of books.

Guided Reading

We teach guided reading using a whole-class approach. This approach is intended to ensure that all children engage with age-appropriate texts and make good progress through their reading programme of study. We use the John Murray guided reading approach, which allows children to revisit a text multiple times over the course of a week. During this week, children follow a set learning structure which includes text orientation, vocabulary study, reading fluency development, text-talk and reading comprehension skills. 

Following this approach, children will study a range of fiction, non-fiction and poetry, engaging with high quality texts and extracts from John Murray's Reading Explorers spine.

Reading for Pleasure

Reading for pleasure is prioritised at St Margaret's in the following ways:

• Class story time takes place daily in all classrooms
• Our school library is well-stocked and updated regularly
• Staff recommend books to children to support them in finding authors and genres that they love to read
• In KS1, alongside their decodable reading books, 'home sharing' books also provide opportunities for children to develop a love of books
• In KS2, children are given opportunities to select their own home reading books
• Whole-school book fairs allow children the opportunity to engage with books beyond the school library
• Planned author and poet visits to school raise the profile of reading at various points throughout the year
• Engagement with global and national initiatives such as World Book Day and National Poetry Day
• Cozy class reading areas and curated book stocks are part of every classroom