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English Reading

Our Reading Curriculum Overview:  

Newington Green and Rotherfield are committed to delivering an English Curriculum that sparks joy, curiosity and a lifelong love of learning in every child. Driven by Rosenshine’s Principles of Instruction, we weave the National Curriculum programmes of study into vibrant, thematic units that captivate and inspire pupils.

 We passionately believe that reading is the key to learning, allowing pupils to confidently access and engage with the wider school curriculum. Being an enthusiastic, engaged and proficient reader enables a child to unlock opportunities and improves life chances in so many vital areas. We want to enable children to find their own reading identity and be filled with the joy, curiosity and fulfilment that a deep love of reading can engender.  

Reading Policy: RF Reading Policy January 2025

Reading for Pleasure

At Rotherfield we are creating an embedded culture of reading for pleasure. We believe that RfP is a vital part of a holistic education. Not only does it boost academic achievement, but it has benefits across the board! 

We prioritise reading for pleasure in class through Storytime Sessions; a wonderful library, which is pupil-led and is run by our fabulous library team (which includes a Young Librarian of the Year winner for 2025!). We also ensure that every class across the school has a half termly visit to our local Islington South Library to choose their own book to take home to read. Every class has a welcoming and well-stocked book corner so that children have a space to read and build their love of reading.  We run regular parent reader sessions, where our parents come into class and read with their children. We celebrate our enthusiastic readers and have a Golden Reader for every class per half term.  Teachers as readers is an important part of the Rotherfield RfP philosophy and we run a staff book group to help develop our knowledge and love of children’s books.  

Phonics and Early Reading

At RF, we use the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds programme to teach phonics; LW is a systematic and synthetic phonics programme. We start teaching phonics in Nursery and continue through KS1, which ensures children build on their growing knowledge of the alphabetic code, mastering phonics to read and spell as they move through school. For children in later years, who may need continued work on their phonics skills, we hold daily Rapid Catch-Up groups.  

LW Parent resources: For parents | Letters and Sounds 

Policy:  RF Phonics and Early Reading Policy

Below you will find helpful guides and videos that will support you, in helping your child to read.  

Home Reading

At Rotherfield, guided reading and free choice books are sent home with your child every week, with a task to do linked to their teacher-given book, to help develop their fluency and comprehension. Reading at home will help develop your child’s vocabulary, communication, empathy, imagination and concentration. Whether this is sharing books by reading together or your child beginning to read more independently, we advise that all children read for at least 10 minutes a day. Ideally, 20 minutes a day would be the most beneficial. 

Book Trust top tips for reading at home: Tips for reading with your child | BookTrust

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