Reading at Cardinham
At Cardinham Primary School, we recognise that reading is at the heart of everything children learn. Reading opens the door to the entire curriculum, enabling children to access new knowledge, develop their understanding of the world and become confident, successful learners. We are passionate about fostering not only the skills needed to read well, but also a genuine love of reading that will stay with children throughout their lives.
We believe that every child deserves to experience the joy of stories, which is why children are read to every day from Nursery through to Year 6. Sharing high-quality texts allows us to introduce children to rich language, diverse experiences and inspiring ideas, while creating memorable opportunities to explore books together. These daily reading experiences help to nurture curiosity, imagination and a lifelong enjoyment of reading.
Throughout the year, we celebrate reading in a variety of exciting ways. As part of the TPAT Love of Reading Year, children take part in a range of activities designed to inspire and engage them as readers. We are proud to provide opportunities for pupils to hear from published authors, including visitors such as Tom Palmer, helping children to see themselves as readers and writers while gaining insight into the creative process behind the books they enjoy.
We also understand that becoming a successful reader requires more than simply decoding words. Fluency is a vital component of reading development and enables children to read accurately, smoothly and with expression. When children become fluent readers, they are able to focus on understanding and enjoying what they read rather than simply working out the words on the page. For this reason, fluency is taught explicitly across the school through regular modelling, repeated reading, discussion and opportunities to practise reading aloud with confidence.
Through our commitment to high-quality reading experiences, explicit teaching and a culture that celebrates books, we aim for every child to leave Cardinham as a confident, fluent reader with a love of reading and the skills they need to thrive in all areas of learning.