At Forest Edge, we believe that learning to read is the gateway to empowering every child not only to access the rest of our dynamic curriculum, but also a whole world and a lifetime of literature and life skills. We aim for every learner to be highly engaged in reading from the very beginning. We want our pupils to read fluently and with expression, developing such automaticity in this that their minds are free to comprehend the richness of a text as they move through the school. Throughout their time with us, we want to immerse our pupils in learning environments that really shout about reading and the amazing world of possibilities that reading proficiently will open up. 

Our curriculum sets high expectations: even the youngest readers in the EYFS, as they apply their early Phonics knowledge, will be shown the way to read with 'prosody' and awareness of the listener. As the building blocks of Phonics allow children to read increasingly smoothly and with deeper comprehension, we turn our attention to teaching the finer skills of reading for meaning through Year 2 and beyond. 

Further into Key Stage 2, and in preparation for deeper analysis at secondary school and beyond, pupils are facilitated to discuss authorial intent and the impact of certain choices upon the reader. 

Another central strength of our Reading curriculum is our carefully chosen range of quality text drivers. Pupils will encounter a progression of genres, authors' voices, literary devices and structures within texts, as part of their whole-class reading, as well as at the heart of each Writing unit in English, reading for pleasure opportunities and within our 'No Outsiders' curriculum. 

From the start of a child's Reading journey with us, Little Wandle Phonics ensures a rigorous and pacey introduction to key GPCS and to developing reading automaticity. As part of Little Wandle, we also use their Rapid Catch Up intervention to close gaps. Progress is supported by fully decodable reading materials. 

Our schools are very book-rich places; via our partnership with Hamsphire SLS, we continually rotate texts, keeping every classroom's reading corner fresh and well-stocked. For children needing support with reading comprehension and spelling, Lexia Core 5 provides a timely, tailored programme of practice. We subscribe to First News and SORA reading app, as part of our commitment to quality non-fiction, graphic novel and magazine stimuli.

For children in KS2 eligible for Pupil Premium, we fund a copy of the current Whole Class Reading novel, ordered in partnership with our local independent bookshop.

We monitor and assess reading closely throughout our schools, giving extra support to children where needed. We track both comprehension and reading fluency speed to ensure our children leave us as confident readers who are ready to take the next steps in their education. They are able to discuss a range of texts and make links between them, using language from what they have read to inspire their writing.