Reading Provision
How we support reading at Camelsdale
Here at Camelsdale - we love reading!
“Reading for pleasure is the single biggest indicator of a child’s future success – more than their family circumstances, their parents’ educational background or their income.”
Research clearly shows the importance for children’s development of reading for pleasure. Our goal, therefore, is for every child leaving Camelsdale to be a fluent and enthusiastic reader - someone who will retain a love of reading for life.
We do this through a wide range of activities, both inside and outside the classroom.
We have adopted Essential Letters and Sounds (ELS) as our phonics programme. The aim of ELS is ‘Getting all children to read well, quickly’. It uses the ‘whole language approach’ and ‘story method’. The stories provide a context which leads to a real purpose for reading. They contain much humour and excitement which encourages children to want to read more. The children develop a strong attachment to the main characters.
We have a range of books from Oxford Reading Tree (ORT) to support the children’s reading once they have developed their skills.
For our Free Readers, as well as our school library, each class has a reading corner, with a selection of age- and ability- appropriate books. These include different genres, and range from classic literature, to ‘page-turner’ books, ‘hi-lo’ books and graphic novels.
We make sure that core texts in class are chosen to challenge, engage and inspire the children. These are quality texts, across a range of genres, including fiction and non-fiction, poetry, picture books and graphic novels.
In addition, there are a wealth of activities throughout the year, to help develop a love of reading:
- English Week - including whole school writing activities, Book at Breakfast, Grandparents’ story time and Character Day.
- Regular visits to the school library.
- Visits and talks from Haslemere Library and Haslemere Bookshop.
- ‘Panda Reading’ - where our Reception children read with their ‘panda pals’ in Year 5.
- Book Talk sessions in class.
- The opportunity to become school librarians in Year 5.
- After school Book Club for Infants and Juniors.
- Family Read and Tea Time events.
How parents and carers can support reading at home
There are lots of ways that children can be supported and encouraged to read at home. Research for World Book day found that there are six key building blocks to supporting children to read for pleasure:
- Being read to regularly
- Having books at home and at school
- Having a choice in what to read
- Finding time to read
- Having trusted help to find a book
- Making reading FUN!
(Source: www.worldbookday.com)
There are lots of ways to do this:
Finding time to read with your child, as well as talking about books, and sharing what you like to read, are great ways to encourage reading for pleasure. We recommend reading with your child at least four times per week.
The Open University has some useful tips on supporting reading at home.
“Adults usually tell you to read but then they don’t read and go on their phones. My teachers and my dad do that!”
Girl, 11, Non-Reader (Beano Brain research, 2023)
Local libraries are a great way to get children interested in books and most have a good selection of children’s books. Make sure your child is a member of your local library.
Haslemere Library runs the Chatterbox reading group for children aged 7+ once a month. They also run lots of holiday activities.
"Researchers in the United States who had looked at the impact of parents reading with their children quoted the following figures in a news release about their findings:
Here's how many words kids would have heard by the time they were 5 years olf:
Never read to, 4,662 words
1-2 times per week, 63,570 words
3-5 times per week, 169,520 words
daily, 296,660 words
five books a day, 1,483,300 words."
The Reading Framework 2023