Reading

Our reading curriculum aims to cultivate accurate and fluent readers who find joy in the written word. We want children to engage expressively with texts, celebrating stories that offer both windows into different lives and mirrors reflecting their own experiences. By fostering a love for books, we help students develop empathy and connect more deeply with the world around them. Through diverse literature, we inspire curiosity and encourage conversations that transcend borders, fostering a sense of belonging and understanding in our ever-changing society. Ultimately, we want every child to feel that reading is not just a skill, but a gateway to adventure.

Reading at our school is underpinned by two complementary approaches: building strong reading skills and nurturing a lifelong love of reading for pleasure.

Early Listening Skills

Reading begins from the moment our youngest children join the school. In Early Years, children develop strong early listening skills through exposure to carefully selected stories, singing familiar nursery rhymes, and taking part in a wide range of speaking and listening activities. They are encouraged to ‘tune their ears’ to the sounds around them, helping to build the foundations for early phonics and language development in a fun and engaging way.

Read Write Inc (see Phonics page for additional information)

In the Early Years and Key Stage 1, children take part in daily Read Write Inc sessions. Highly trained staff follow a consistent, systematic approach to teaching phonics, ensuring children learn to segment words for spelling and blend sounds for reading with confidence. Lessons are lively, interactive and carefully matched to each child’s stage of development, allowing pupils to enjoy their learning while making excellent progress at Kader.

Book Spine

Each year group works through a carefully selected core set of texts, known as our Book Spine. These language-rich books have been chosen to provide high-quality reading experiences and expose children to a wide range of authors, genres and themes. Wherever possible, texts link to the wider curriculum, helping children make meaningful connections across subjects and deepen their understanding of the world around them. 

BOOK SPINE

Whole Class Reading

During English lessons, children develop their reading skills through daily whole class reading sessions that are closely linked to carefully chosen class texts. Sessions focus initially on developing reading fluency, with regular opportunities for children to hear high-quality modelled reading, practise reading aloud, and develop pace, expression and accuracy. Pupils are encouraged to share their thoughts, ideas and interpretations through purposeful talk and collaborative discussion, allowing them to explore different viewpoints, justify their opinions and engage critically with what they read. This rich dialogue supports comprehension and helps to foster confidence, enjoyment and a genuine love of reading. Children learn how to formalise these deep responses into a written answer, showing their skills in a range of question domains- vocabulary, inference, prediction, explanation, retrieval and summary, ensuring children build a deep and secure understanding of texts.

Accelerated Reader

At Kader, we offer children access to a wide range of high-quality reading books through our extensive and welcoming library. Our collection includes current, engaging texts that reflect the diverse experiences of our pupils and allow them to see themselves in the stories they read. Through the Accelerated Reader programme, children take quizzes on their chosen books to demonstrate their understanding and comprehension, enabling them to progress through levels at a pace that suits their individual reading journey.

Reading Plus

From Year 4 onwards, children further develop their reading fluency, comprehension and vocabulary through the online programme Reading Plus. Weekly tasks are tailored to each child’s reading level, supporting independent progress and confidence. Children find this programme highly motivating, as they move through different levels and receive awards and certificates to celebrate their achievements.

Reading for Pleasure 

At our school, we actively foster a love of reading through a wide range of engaging activities designed to make books enjoyable and meaningful. Children have opportunities to explore texts independently, share their thoughts through book reviews and scrapbooks, and take part in daily class story times that bring stories to life. Pupils are encouraged to vote for their favourite books, helping to shape classroom reading choices and celebrate their personal preferences. Enriching experiences such as author visits, poetry slams and library trips inspire curiosity and broaden children’s literary horizons, while creating memorable connections with the world of books. Through these varied approaches, children develop a genuine enthusiasm for reading that extends beyond the classroom.

Empathy and Inclusion

Alongside our rich academic curriculum, we use picture book assemblies to promote empathy, inclusion and our core school values. Carefully chosen texts act as both windows and mirrors for our pupils, offering insight into different cultures, experiences and perspectives while also reflecting their own lives and identities. These shared reading experiences encourage thoughtful discussion, helping children develop understanding, respect and compassion for others.

As a result of our carefully structured reading curriculum, pupils at Kader Academy develop into confident, fluent and enthusiastic readers. Children make strong progress from their starting points, with the vast majority achieving well in phonics and building the secure foundations needed for reading success across the curriculum. As they move through the school, pupils read with increasing accuracy, prosody and understanding, demonstrating the ability to interpret, infer and think critically about a wide range of texts.

Pupils speak passionately about reading and are able to discuss books, authors and genres with confidence, reflecting a genuine love of reading for pleasure. They make thoughtful connections between texts and the wider world, showing empathy, curiosity and a growing awareness of different perspectives and experiences. Reading is a visible and celebrated part of school life, with pupils choosing to read independently, recommending books to others and engaging fully in the rich reading opportunities provided.

Outcomes in reading are strong, and gaps between groups are diminishing as a result of targeted support and high-quality teaching. Pupils, including those who are disadvantaged and those with additional needs, are supported to achieve well and develop as readers. By the time children leave Kader Academy, they are not only well-prepared for the next stage of their education, but also equipped with a lifelong appreciation of reading as a source of knowledge, enjoyment and personal growth.

My child is finding reading difficult. What will school do to help? 

Pupils will be assessed in their reading development through a variety of means, both formative and summative. This includes the use of:

• On-the- spot assessment in lessons;
• Accelerated Reader (quizzes designed to see how much of their reading book has been understood);
• Star Reader- a half termly test undertaken by pupils which gives a reading age and suitable book leve;
• Pixl assessments undertaken once per term, highlighting key areas of strength and development for each pupil.

The assessment data is collated to give a full picture of pupil progress and our skilled and responsive staff plan future lessons accordingly. Swift intervention is planned for and delivered to those pupils who may be finding an area of their reading difficult. This might be through a pre-teaching activity, some additional 1:1 reading sessions or some additional group work, focusing on the key areas of difficulty presented.

My child is an excellent reader. How will they be challenged? 

We recognise and celebrate children who are confident and capable readers, and we ensure they are consistently challenged to deepen their understanding and enjoyment of texts. Within whole-class reading sessions, pupils are given regular opportunities to orally rehearse and formulate thoughtful responses to what they read. In a similar way to mathematics, pupils are extended through ‘prove it’, ‘explain it’ and ‘justify it’ style questions, which encourage deeper thinking, critical analysis and the ability to make wider connections across texts and subjects.

More able readers are supported to explore increasingly complex vocabulary, themes and authorial techniques, and are encouraged to lead and contribute to high-quality discussion with their peers. Our use of Reading Plus and Accelerated Reader is highly responsive to individual need, allowing pupils to access appropriately challenging texts, develop fluency and comprehension at pace, and progress through higher levels as their skills grow.

What can I do at home to support my child?