Reading in KS 2

Teaching of Reading

At St Mary's C E Primary School, we believe that reading is fundamental to children's learning and success across the curriculum. Our aim is to develop confident, fluent and independent readers who enjoy reading, understand what they read and can think critically about a wide range of texts.

As children move into Key Stage 2, we build upon the foundations established through Read Write Inc. Phonics. Children continue to develop their reading fluency, vocabulary and comprehension, learning to engage with increasingly challenging texts.

How We Teach Reading

In Years 3, 4, 5 and 6, we use Destination Reader as our approach to teaching reading.

Destination Reader provides a structured way of teaching the skills and strategies children need to become successful readers. Through carefully selected texts, teacher modelling, discussion and independent practice, children learn not only to read accurately and fluently but also to understand, interpret and respond thoughtfully to what they read.

Our focus is always on teaching children to become better readers, with Destination Reader providing the framework to support this.

Developing Effective Reading Behaviours

An important part of our reading lessons is helping children become active, thoughtful and independent readers.

We teach three key learning behaviours:

Support and actively listen to others – respecting different viewpoints and learning from one another.
Discuss and explain ideas – sharing thoughts and supporting them with evidence from the text.
Take responsibility for learning – working independently and collaboratively to develop understanding.

These behaviours encourage children to engage in meaningful discussions about books and develop confidence in expressing their ideas.

Developing Reading Comprehension

To help children understand texts at a deeper level, we explicitly teach seven reading strategies:

Predicting: Using clues from the text and existing knowledge to suggest what might happen next.
Inferring: Using evidence from the text to understand ideas, feelings and information that are not directly stated.
Asking questions: Thinking carefully about what they read and asking questions to deepen understanding.
Evaluating: Forming opinions about texts and explaining their views using evidence.
Clarifying: Identifying unfamiliar words or confusing information and developing strategies to understand them.
Making connections: Linking what they read to their own experiences, other texts and their knowledge of the world.
Summarising: Identifying and explaining the main ideas and important information in a text.

Children are taught how and when to use these strategies so that they gradually become more confident and independent in understanding what they read.

Developing Written Comprehension

Alongside our reading lessons, children take part in a weekly Written Comprehension lesson (Big Picture).

These lessons help children apply their reading skills to a range of question types and develop clear, well-supported written responses.

Children learn to retrieve relevant information, make inferences, explain their thinking and use evidence from the text to justify their answers.

Our Aim: Confident, Fluent and Thoughtful Readers

At St Mary's, reading is about much more than answering comprehension questions. We want children to read with fluency, understand increasingly complex texts, develop a rich vocabulary and discover the pleasure of reading.

Through high-quality teaching, regular reading practice and exposure to a wide range of literature, we aim to ensure that every child leaves our school with the skills, confidence and enthusiasm to continue reading and learning throughout their lives.

Resources and Reading Materials

At St Mary's C E Primary School, we provide children with a wide range of high-quality texts and resources to support their development as readers.

During reading lessons, children use reading bookmarks that provide reminders of the three key learning behaviours and seven reading strategies. These bookmarks include sentence stems to support discussion, encourage children to explain their thinking and help them become more independent readers.

Children explore a variety of text types, including fiction, non-fiction and poetry, developing their ability to read, understand and respond to different styles of writing.

Where appropriate, texts are linked to learning across the curriculum, allowing children to build on their existing knowledge, develop vocabulary and make meaningful connections between subjects.

Reading is taught daily through dedicated lessons, alongside our English curriculum.

Reading Working Walls

Each Key Stage 2 classroom has a dedicated Reading Working Wall that supports children's understanding of the texts they are studying.

These displays are working resources that teachers and pupils use throughout reading lessons to revisit learning, explore ideas and develop understanding.

Our Reading Working Walls help children to:

Build Knowledge

Develop an understanding of the author, genre and context of a text.
Make connections between different books and their wider learning.
Keep track of important characters, events, themes and information.

Develop Reading Skills

Revisit and apply reading strategies.
Use a range of approaches to clarify unfamiliar vocabulary and ideas.
Remember and practise effective reading behaviours.
Support discussions and explain their understanding using evidence from the text.

By regularly referring to these resources, children are encouraged to make connections between prior knowledge and new learning, strengthening their understanding and independence as readers.

Reading for Pleasure

At St Mary's C E Primary School, we recognise that becoming a successful reader involves much more than developing reading skills in the classroom.

We want every child to discover the joy of reading, develop their own reading interests and see books as a source of enjoyment, knowledge and imagination.

Reading for pleasure is an important part of our school culture. We encourage children to explore different authors, genres and text types, share recommendations and develop positive reading habits that extend beyond the classroom.

Developing a Reading Culture

We promote a love of reading across our school through a range of opportunities and activities, including:

Reading Ambassadors: Children who help promote reading, share recommendations and encourage others to discover new books.
Book in a Bag: Opportunities for children to enjoy books and share reading experiences at home.
Class Reading Areas: Every classroom has a dedicated reading area where children can explore and enjoy a range of books.
Our School Library: A welcoming space offering a variety of fiction, non-fiction and poetry to encourage curiosity and independent reading.
Whole-School Reading Events: Regular activities and celebrations that bring our school community together through books and stories.
Celebrating Reading at Home: Recognising and encouraging children's reading experiences beyond the classroom.

Our Commitment to Reading

Our aim is for every child to leave St Mary's as a confident, fluent and enthusiastic reader, equipped with the skills to understand increasingly challenging texts and a genuine love of reading that will stay with them throughout their lives.