Longvernal Literacy Spine

At Longvernal, our ‘drivers’ for encouraging reading are set out below:

In order to ensure children fully achieve their potential across the curriculum and lay the foundations necessary for future success, it is essential that every child leaves primary school as a fluent reader. Unless they are competent readers, children cannot fully access the curriculum, meaning their learning in all areas is negatively impacted. Where there are barriers to learning, we seek to find ways to maximise success.

Children who love reading acquire a broader vocabulary which increases their life career chances. Reading also builds knowledge of the world, enhancing children’s cultural capital - again, crucial to future success.

To achieve this, we:

• Provide every child with a Longvernal book bag
• Hold parent information meetings about supporting reading at home
• Have fully committed to a phonics scheme that underpins early reading then supports spelling as children progress through the school
• Have procured £5000 worth of new phonetically-decodable books
• Have invested in extensive staff training for phonics and guided reading
• Have trained two of our teachers as external Early Reading and Phonics auditors, meaning we benefit from their expertise
• Ensure that the book an early reading child brings home aligns to their phonics learning in school, so that they are reading for fluency and success at home
• Ensure children also take home a book to share, for enjoyment
• Have daily story time
• Have daily ‘DEAR’ (Drop Everything and Read) time
• Have daily whole class Guided Reading sessions
• Have installed a designated Reading House as a place for children to enjoy books and stories
• Encourage parental and community volunteers to hear readers regularly
• Have a designated Reading Corner in every classroom
• Have created a Golden Bookcase for weekly Celebration Assembly- each class has a Reader of the Week who climbs the Golden staircase and borrows a book
• Monitor reading logs to encourage regular reading at home and parental support
• Are currently creating a Reading Spine to guarantee that, over the course of their primary school years, children experience a range of genres
• Hold an annual book fair
• Attend author events when possible
• Encourage children to talk about what they are reading with a living display around who is reading what so children broaden their range
• Hold a whole week of Book Week events including a costume parade, poetry show, buddy readers , quizzes and competitions