Reading
At our school, we believe teaching every child to read is a fundamental right and moral imperative. Reading opens the door to knowledge, curiosity, learning and life opportunities. Without strong reading skills, children are unable to access the full curriculum. We are committed to ensuring that every child becomes a fluent, confident reader, regardless of background, additional needs or starting point.
Our Approach to Reading
Early Reading and Phonics
For those children who need additional support, early reading is taught through Little Wandle, a validated synthetic phonics programme. Phonics is taught daily as an additional intervention to provide support for pupils who may need extra practice. Decodable books are carefully matched to each child’s phonics stage so they can practise success and build confidence.
Reading across the school
Children are encouraged to continue to build fluency, vocabulary and comprehension through a blend of whole-class and small-group reading. Our approach to reading in KS2 draws on research-informed strategies from:
Our Reading Culture
Our Approach to Reading
Early Reading and Phonics
For those children who need additional support, early reading is taught through Little Wandle, a validated synthetic phonics programme. Phonics is taught daily as an additional intervention to provide support for pupils who may need extra practice. Decodable books are carefully matched to each child’s phonics stage so they can practise success and build confidence.
Reading across the school
Children are encouraged to continue to build fluency, vocabulary and comprehension through a blend of whole-class and small-group reading. Our approach to reading in KS2 draws on research-informed strategies from:
- Talk for Reading (Pie Corbett) – immersive reading experiences and deep understanding of texts
- Reading Reconsidered (Doug Lemov) – close reading and analysis of complex texts
- Power of Reading (CLPE) – high-quality children’s literature to inspire thinking, talk and writing
- Retrieval
- Inference
- Vocabulary understanding
- Summarising
- Author’s intent
- Figurative language and imagery
- Comparing and analysing texts
Our Reading Culture
- All children regularly access texts from our school reading spine, which introduces them to high-quality fiction, non-fiction and poetry.
- Each classroom has a rich reading area to encourage reading for pleasure.
- Our school library is well-stocked and updated regularly to reflect pupils’ interests and current literature.
- Children are heard reading regularly one-to-one and in small groups, ensuring every child receives personalised reading support.
Supporting EAL Learners at IVJS
At IVJS, we are proud of our diverse school community and the many languages spoken by our pupils. We believe that every child, regardless of their language background, can become a confident, fluent reader with the right support.
How we support EAL learners in school
We provide targeted reading support through:
Supporting Reading at Home
We strongly encourage daily reading at home. Reading with your child 1:1 has a powerful impact on fluency, vocabulary and comprehension.
Strategies for Reading at Home
Supporting phonics – see below videos
https://www.youtube.com/@lettersandsoundsforhomeand9824
Supporting reading at home – see below videos
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKFdKs_2wJY&t=73s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNqG-RlwrIM
https://youtu.be/1O-N2g96yvo?si=WfKr5t17KNcDF853
Questions Parents Can Ask While Reading
Here are some simple questions to help develop deeper understanding:
Focus and Example Questions
Vocabulary - What does this word mean? Can we use it in a sentence?
Prediction - What do you think will happen next? Why?
Inference - How do you think this character is feeling? What clues tell you that?
Retrieval - Can you find the part that tells us…?
Summary - What has happened so far in the story?
Author’s Choices
Why do you think the author used this word? What effect does it have?
How Parents Can Support EAL Children with Reading at Home
Parents play a vital role in helping EAL learners progress in reading. Support can happen in any language – the most important thing is developing understanding, vocabulary and enjoyment.
Here are some simple ways to help at home:
1. Read every day
2. Use your home language
3. Build vocabulary
Ask helpful questions like:
4. Use simple reading strategies
5. Try useful tools
Questions to support EAL children’s understanding
Purpose and Example questions:
Checking understanding - What happened in this part? Can you show me in the picture?
Vocabulary - What does this word mean? Can we act it out or draw it?
Prediction - What do you think will happen next? Why?
Connection - Does this remind you of anything in your life or another story?
Clarifying - Was there anything you didn’t understand? Let’s look again together.
Home Reading Records – Reward System
Children are expected to bring their reading record to school every day. From Autumn Term 2, any child who brings in their reading record daily (that includes a comment by a parent or by the child themselves as evidence of reading) will be entered into a weekly raffle draw. Each week, one reading record will be selected from each class and entered into a termly prize draw with sweets for the winner!
This encourages children to develop positive daily reading habits and take pride in their reading journey.
At IVJS, we are proud of our diverse school community and the many languages spoken by our pupils. We believe that every child, regardless of their language background, can become a confident, fluent reader with the right support.
How we support EAL learners in school
We provide targeted reading support through:
- Daily Little Wandle phonics teaching with extra small-group sessions for pupils who need language reinforcement.
- Vocabulary pre-teaching to help children understand key words before encountering them in texts.
- Use of visual supports such as pictures, real objects (realia) and gestures to build word understanding.
- Talk for Reading strategies which include modelling fluent reading and developing oral comprehension.
- Language-rich classrooms with labelled environments and consistent exposure to high-quality spoken English.
- Dual-language support where appropriate, including bilingual dictionaries and opportunities to discuss texts in a child’s home language to build understanding.
- Reading buddies – pairing EAL children with fluent peer readers to build confidence.
Supporting Reading at Home
We strongly encourage daily reading at home. Reading with your child 1:1 has a powerful impact on fluency, vocabulary and comprehension.
Strategies for Reading at Home
- Read little and often – 10–15 minutes a day is enough
- Take turns reading pages (shared reading)
- Model expression and fluency
- Re-read familiar books to build confidence
- Talk about the book together
Supporting phonics – see below videos
https://www.youtube.com/@lettersandsoundsforhomeand9824
Supporting reading at home – see below videos
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKFdKs_2wJY&t=73s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNqG-RlwrIM
https://youtu.be/1O-N2g96yvo?si=WfKr5t17KNcDF853
Questions Parents Can Ask While Reading
Here are some simple questions to help develop deeper understanding:
Focus and Example Questions
Vocabulary - What does this word mean? Can we use it in a sentence?
Prediction - What do you think will happen next? Why?
Inference - How do you think this character is feeling? What clues tell you that?
Retrieval - Can you find the part that tells us…?
Summary - What has happened so far in the story?
Author’s Choices
Why do you think the author used this word? What effect does it have?
How Parents Can Support EAL Children with Reading at Home
Parents play a vital role in helping EAL learners progress in reading. Support can happen in any language – the most important thing is developing understanding, vocabulary and enjoyment.
Here are some simple ways to help at home:
1. Read every day
- Read with your child for 10–15 minutes.
- If English is new to them, start with picture books and talk about the story together.
- Don’t worry if they want to reread the same book – repetition helps learning.
2. Use your home language
- Talk about the story in your home language to check understanding.
- It is absolutely fine to read books in your first language – this supports thinking and comprehension.
- You can explain new English words using your home language to build understanding.
3. Build vocabulary
Ask helpful questions like:
- "What is happening in the picture?"
- "Can you describe what you see?"
- "What new words did we learn today?"
- "What word means the same as…?"
4. Use simple reading strategies
- Talk about the title and pictures before reading.
- Ask your child to predict what might happen next.
- Pause while reading to explain or act out tricky words.
- After reading, ask: "What happened in the story?"
5. Try useful tools
- Use free eBooks or audiobooks online
- Use dual-language books
- Make a word bank at home for new English words
- Label everyday objects around the home in English
Questions to support EAL children’s understanding
Purpose and Example questions:
Checking understanding - What happened in this part? Can you show me in the picture?
Vocabulary - What does this word mean? Can we act it out or draw it?
Prediction - What do you think will happen next? Why?
Connection - Does this remind you of anything in your life or another story?
Clarifying - Was there anything you didn’t understand? Let’s look again together.
Home Reading Records – Reward System
Children are expected to bring their reading record to school every day. From Autumn Term 2, any child who brings in their reading record daily (that includes a comment by a parent or by the child themselves as evidence of reading) will be entered into a weekly raffle draw. Each week, one reading record will be selected from each class and entered into a termly prize draw with sweets for the winner!
This encourages children to develop positive daily reading habits and take pride in their reading journey.
