Reading at Soane

At Ark Soane Academy, we prioritise reading in every classroom. By promoting reading across the full curriculum spectrum, we equip students to read fluently and comprehend texts in every subject discipline. It is crucial that we nurture fluent readers who can independently comprehend a wide range of texts in order for students to appreciate the central role of reading as the key to acquiring knowledge and setting them up for success in future learning. The skills involved in reading, comprehending and interpreting a text in the classroom – which involves self-reflection, discussion and navigating a divergence of opinions and interpretations – will also develop students’ empathy, tolerance and self-awareness.

Our reading across the curriculum strategy is founded upon the following five principles:

1. Reading is the pathway to learning. Reading is the key to unlocking the curriculum for students. Students need to be trained to read as a historian, as a scientist, a geographer, a mathematician, so that they can progressively build stamina for reading challenging, academic texts in the future.
2. Background knowledge matters. The reading students undertake in school is typically more complex than other forms and requires substantial background knowledge. Through pre-reading tasks, teachers equip students with the background knowledge to aid their reading and comprehension.
3. Fluency aids comprehension. Reading with expression and accuracy contribute towards reading comprehension. Providing students with opportunities to read aloud in the classroom allows teachers to support students with developing fluency.
4. Accountable Independent Reading is a tool for life. Teachers support students with effectively reading a text for meaning by providing students with questions/tasks that support students’ comprehension of a text, encourage more ‘active’ reading habits and equip students to tackle texts with independence later in life.
5. Able readers read more independently. Children’s reading ability determines how much they read so, as teachers, we are committed to delivering high quality reading provision; if we can improve the teaching of reading, then we are likely to increase our students’ reading ability and how much they read for pleasure and engage in our subject disciplines.

Our work on reading in the classroom is fully supported through:

• our phonics and literacy intervention programme for novice readers;
• our twice-weekly sessions of silent independent reading;
• the 90 minutes per week set aside for whole class reading; and
• our warm, inclusive and well-used library.