Reading at Ingrow Primary School
“Reading is an exercise in empathy; an exercise in walking in someone else’s shoes for a while.”
— Malorie Blackman
At Ingrow Primary School, reading sits at the heart of our curriculum. We are committed to developing fluent, thoughtful and confident readers who are curious about the world around them and fully prepared for the academic demands of secondary school and beyond.
Early Reading and Phonics (EYFS – Year 2)
We teach early reading through Ruth Miskin’s Read Write Inc. phonics programme, from EYFS through to the end of Year 2. This systematic, synthetic phonics scheme is carefully sequenced to ensure children rapidly develop secure knowledge of the alphabetic code.
Phonics is taught daily and delivered with rigour, consistency and fidelity to the programme, ensuring all pupils receive a strong and reliable foundation in reading. Through this robust approach, children become accurate and confident decoders who feel safe to take risks, ask questions and remain curious as they learn.
A Carefully Chosen Reading Spine (KS1 & KS2)
Across Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2, pupils are immersed in an expertly selected reading spine that reflects a rich and diverse range of literature. These texts are thoughtfully chosen to link with our history, geography and science curriculum, allowing pupils to build background knowledge and make meaningful connections across subjects.
These core texts also act as a driver for writing, so children learn to read as writers. Through exposure to high-quality literature, pupils explore how authors craft characters, settings and events, while developing respect for different voices, cultures and perspectives.
Daily Reading Lessons: Talk, Think and Understand
Each day, pupils take part in a structured reading lesson built around their core class text. These lessons strike a purposeful balance between dialogic talk and explicit comprehension teaching. To support this, we use a set of clearly defined Reading Roles, which help children understand what skilled readers do and how to talk about texts with confidence and precision.
During reading lessons, pupils are encouraged to adopt different roles depending on the focus of the discussion or question:
- The Translator – explains unfamiliar vocabulary by using context and prior knowledge
- The Reporter – retrieves key facts, details and information directly from the text
- The Editor – summarises main ideas across paragraphs or sections of the text
- The Detective – makes inferences and justifies them with evidence
- The Weather Forecaster – predicts what might happen next using clues from the text
- The Author – explains how the writer’s language and structural choices affect the reader
- The Interpreter – explores how meaning is shaped through word choice and phrasing
- The Librarian – makes comparisons within the text and between texts
Teachers model fluent, expressive reading, while pupils are given regular opportunities to practise reading aloud themselves. Through respectful discussion and shared thinking, children learn to select the most appropriate reading role, justify their ideas using evidence, and build meaning together. This approach supports children to become confident, thoughtful and inquisitive readers, well prepared for the demands of secondary school and beyond.
Word of the Day (WOTD)
In both KS1 and KS2, vocabulary development is further strengthened through our Word of the Day approach. A carefully chosen word is lifted directly from the class text, and pupils use their reading skills to infer its meaning through a range of evidence, such as:
- related images
- synonyms and antonyms
- anagrams
- contextual clues from the text
Only then is the definition revealed, before pupils apply the word in spoken and written sentences. This approach develops analytical thinking, deepens understanding of language and encourages children to be confident, curious and resilient readers.
The Reading Week: Empathy, Awareness and Understanding
Week 1 of every three-week writing sequence is dedicated entirely to reading and immersion — The Reading Week.
This week acts as a powerful vehicle for exploring real-world issues, factual knowledge and wider understanding, alongside narrative depth. Through carefully chosen texts, pupils are supported to:
- see the world through the eyes of others
- develop empathy for different lived experiences
- build awareness of historical, social and scientific contexts
Across the school, pupils have explored themes such as refugee experiences, homelessness (including meeting a charity that supports those affected), and habitats and survival in the natural world. Reading Week gives children the time and space to ask questions, challenge assumptions and deepen understanding — helping them to become thoughtful, respectful and informed readers.
Reading for Pleasure and Reading Culture
Beyond lessons, we work hard to nurture a genuine love of reading. Every class benefits from:
- dedicated daily story time
- regular library sessions
- opportunities to win books through our book vending machine
- book fairs and whole-school reading celebrations
Reading is visible, valued and celebrated across the school. Children are encouraged to talk about books, recommend texts to one another and develop positive reading habits that extend well beyond the classroom.
Preparing Readers for the Next Stage
Through our structured, consistent and ambitious approach to reading, pupils leave Ingrow as confident, competent readers. They can tackle increasingly complex texts, discuss ideas with maturity, and use reading as a tool for learning across the curriculum — ready to thrive in high school and beyond.
This strong foundation ensures pupils are well prepared for the academic and personal demands of secondary school and beyond.
“The more that you read, the more things you will know.
The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.”
— Dr Seuss