Reading at St Andrew's

The overarching aim for Reading at our school is to promote the highest standards of language and literacy by equipping pupils with a strong command of the spoken and written word, and to develop the love of literature through widespread reading for enjoyment across all aspects of the curriculum. St Andrews’ children will be inspired to become independent, life-long enthusiasts of reading, with the skills required to decode, fluently read, and comprehend a wide range of texts, becoming flourishing readers for life. 

How Reading Develops the Whole Child at St Andrew's

At St Andrew’s, our children explore key personal development themes through high quality children’s literature. Many of our

school Christian Values are also explored through the carefully selected texts that we choose to study.

Reading is also an important driver for learning across the wider curriculum, with texts used to support learning in all subject areas.

Our Road map shows where these themes occur throughout a child’s flourishing reading journey at St Andrew’s. Please click on the link below to see how our key vehicle reading texts support developing the whole child and how they link to other areas of our curriculum.

The St Andrew's Reading Spine

At St Andrew’s, we know that Reading is the cornerstone of education. We have selected 70 books that we believe every child in our school should know deeply by the end of each year.

We have selected these books because of the huge breadth that they offer. There are modern books, books from our literary heritage, books told from multiple perspectives, books that move backwards and forwards in time, books that help us to understand other cultures, books that explore themes of inclusiveness and compassion and books that are just great fun.

A World of Books to Read

Working with the Book Trust, we have put together a challenging set of 200 books that we would recommend that the children read before they leave our school. We have split the selection into '100 Books to read before leaving Key Stage 1' and '100 Books to read before leaving Year 6'. The books offer a diverse and broad selection and cover: books from our literary heritage, books with sequels, key rhyming picture books, modern classics, historical children's classics, books with themes and many more. We encourage the children to read as many of these as possible in their time at St Andrew's. Please click on the links below to see the titles that we recommend.

Reading at Home

We encourage all of our children to read at home for 10-15 minutes per night, for at least five days per week. This is a great way to practise key reading skills taught in school. As well as this, reading is a lovely way to spend time, visiting new places, meeting new people and understanding the world. In the leaflet below we have outlined different ways that families can support their children reading at home. The leaflet has discussion prompts that mirror the prompts we use in school in our Whole Class Guided Reading lessons.