Literacy is defined as the ability to read, write, speak and listen in a way that lets us communicate effectively and make sense of the world. A key element of literacy is reading, which brings significant benefits that have a lifelong positive impact on children’s lives.  

• Reading supports children to overcome disadvantage. 
• Reading promotes better mental wellbeing, social skills and strong relationships 
• Reading enables children to reach speech and language milestones and achieve better at school.
• Reading helps children to develop imagination, creativity and empathy.

(Book Trust 2024) 

Aim: At Court Fields School we develop confident readers who enjoy a diverse range of texts and are challenged to improve their reading skills whilst promoting a love of reading.  

We know that ‘reading’ covers decoding, comprehension and fluency. Our Reading strategies handbook supports our staff, and their application of strategies implemented and embedded across the school - Reading Handbook

• To improve decoding skills for our weakest readers, who are reading below their chronological age, we employ a phonics curriculum led by our Reading Intervention Lead (Primary School Teacher) along with trained staff within our learning support department.
• To ensure pupils develop their comprehension skills (their knowledge and understanding of what texts mean) a variety of strategies are used, which include SPARX Reader Year 7-9 which is given an 30minutes - hour a week of dedicated time.
• Teachers model fluency when they read to the class through their intonation of pitch, stress and rhythm; awareness of punctuation and pauses, pace of reading, and use of tone, to enhance meaning. 

We have a fantastic provision in the library with a huge range of non-fiction and fiction texts, from a diverse range of authors including a range of themes. The library is very well attended by a wide range of pupils and book loans are high. 

Our reading strategy is broken down into 3 areas: Developing a love of reading, reading across the curriculum and progressional reading.