The Grove Primary School

“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more you learn, the more places you’ll go.”— Dr. Seuss, “I Can Read With My Eyes Shut!”

At Grove we agree with Dr Seuss! Books and reading are the keys to unlocking the potential in every child. Providing a child with the skills to read and the passion for reading is like giving them the world.

At Grove our aims for reading are:

• To inspire children with our own love of reading.
• To develop pleasure and passion in reading for all our children.
• To encourage children to become enthusiastic and reflective readers through contact with varied, challenging and enriching texts.
• To read a wide variety of genres and text types.
• To read with confidence, fluency and understanding, using a range of independent strategies.

Good reading skills allow children to access all areas of the curriculum. In order to read across the curriculum with fluency, accuracy, understanding and enjoyment pupils need to use a range of strategies: drawing on knowledge of context and grammatical knowledge; applying phonic knowledge and skills; applying alphabet knowledge and developing word recognition. These are skills which the children are taught through English and Guided Reading sessions and which are applied and developed across the curriculum.

Guided Reading is an opportunity to develop and practise reading skills whilst engaging with a variety of texts. Working with groups of children, teachers support them using a balance of questioning and guidance to encourage fluency and comprehension of texts.

Whole class reading sessions occur daily in classrooms at Grove. These sessions encourage children to choose a text and read independently for pleasure. To support reading in class, there is a dedicated book corner in each classroom.

LIBRARY

The library at Grove is the heart of our school and we are incredibly proud of how it has developed into a vibrant area where children can immerse themselves in reading. It is very well stocked with a wide variety of fiction and non-fiction, which children have the opportunity to use during lessons and independently. Parents are encouraged to visit the library at the end of the school day with their children to assist the selection of books to share and enjoy at home.

The school library is a warm, welcoming space where the children are encouraged to choose a book that they would like to read and/or share at home with their family.  Each child in school has a unique library barcode number that enables the children to ‘check’ books into and out of the library. It is run with passion and enthusiasm by an experienced HLTA ‘Reading Champion’ and an amazing team of Year 6 librarians who went through an application and interview process to gain their positions! Their roles include:

• Having a growing knowledge of the books in the library and using this to guide and help other pupils choose appropriate books.
• Running a lunchtime story session where they read stories to younger pupils and then supervise them as they then read to ‘Reading Buddies’. These are cuddly toys who listen in a non-judgemental way.
• Encouraging children to complete the ‘Library Challenges’ which are a variety of book-based tasks linked to the National Curriculum designed to enhance reading for understanding.
• Using their ICT skills to check books in and out.
• Setting up CD stories for children to listen to at lunchtime.

Informing the Reading Champion of book requests from children so that we can update the library regularly.

Reading Team

We are delighted with the number of volunteers we have at Grove to support, inspire and encourage our readers. These volunteers are a mixture of parents, grandparents, students and neighbours of the school. They are an invaluable resource and the time they give to the school makes a huge difference to so many children. If you would like to be part of this fantastic team please contact the school.

PM Benchmark

We employ an HLTA to lead PM Benchmark at Grove. Children who are identified as in need of additional reading support have individual lessons for 30 minutes three times a week. The lesson series lasts for up to 20 weeks. The programme is different for every child, starting from what the child knows and what he/she needs to learn next. The focus of each lesson is to comprehend messages in reading and construct messages in writing, learning how to attend to detail without losing focus on meaning. 

Don’t take our word for it! The importance of reading is believed by many!

“There are many little ways to enlarge your world.  Love of books is the best of all.” - Jacqueline Kennedy

“Today a reader, tomorrow a leader.” – Margaret Fuller

“There is more treasure in books than in all the pirate’s loot on Treasure Island.” — Walt Disney

 “Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.” – Richard Steele”

“So please, oh PLEASE, we beg, we pray, Go throw your TV set away, And in its place you can install, A lovely bookshelf on the wall.” — Roald Dahl, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

 “No entertainment is so cheap as reading, nor any pleasure so lasting. — Lady Montagu

“To learn to read is to light a fire” — Victor Hugo, Les Miserables