Reading

Reading Intent

At Montem Academy, we believe that ability to read is fundamental to our children succeeding; enabling them to access the next stage of their education and beyond. 

Our curriculum has been designed to ensure that pupils have opportunities to develop a love of reading.  Our aim is to ensure that pupils gain a thirst for reading a range of genres and participating in discussions about the books; exploring the language used by different authors and the impact the written words have on the reader. 

Our curriculum has also been designed to ensure that pupils not only read for pleasure but to use books to research and gather new knowledge to extend their understanding.

Reading is an important part of our curriculum and is an integral part of all of our lessons.  At Montem Academy, we teach reading through:

• Discrete comprehension lessons: At Montem Academy, we teach lessons which focus on developing pupils’ level of understanding of the text, through discussion, written and oral tasks; and the exploration of new vocabulary.  Pupils will be taught to retrieve, infer, predict, summarise, analyse and evaluate a whole class text.  
•  Big Read Lessons: At Montem Academy, we encourage our pupils to read for pleasure and to read widely.  In these lessons, pupils explore a novel, developing their reading skills and their ability to understand the author’s intent, connections and links to their own experiences. Discussion and critiquing are key aspects of these lessons. 
• Reading across the curriculum:  At Montem Academy, we maximise opportunities for pupils to read, through our Topic Reading Lessons.  These lessons focus on the teaching of reading whilst increasing the pupils’ knowledge and understanding of the topics being taught in History and Geography.
• Independent Reading:  Montem Academy uses Accelerated Reading to promote independent reading.  Pupils are tested each half term to assess their reading level, ensuring that pupils are reading the most appropriate books. Reluctant readers, or those pupils who struggle with reading are heard reading every day to ensure that they make expected progress.