Reading

Our Vision
At Alston, we aspire for all children to leave our school with not only the ability to read but with a life-long passion for reading and an enriched vocabulary. It is our belief that all children should be equipped with the skills and strategies required to read a book fluently, confidently and with great comprehension. All adults at Alston strive to develop children’s imagination through an embedded culture of reading for pleasure; we recognise that reading is a life skill that allows children to further enhance their knowledge and understanding of the wider world and that a love of reading can ignite a breadth of interests, passions and the curiosity to explore.
Reading at Alston

All members of staff recognise that reading is a fundamental skill used to stimulate children's imaginations and to acquire a love for books. Reading influences the thoughts, feelings and emotions of all our learners. We carefully monitor the children’s reading at home through the use of Reading Record books and encourage parents to be fully active and engaged with us in order to support their child’s ongoing development. Reading lessons are planned and delivered in line with the Leigh Trust Reading Policy, teaching all of the skills and strategies to ensure children leave Alston with the ability to read and explore a wide variety of texts. If children are working below their chronological reading age, targeted intervention and support is put in place to develop fluency and build comprehension skills.
Children in all classes have access to story time which is delivered by our energetic and enthusiastic adults: this ensures that reading is correctly modelled to children to support them with developing their own fluency skills, as well as giving them the opportunity to enjoy being read to!

At Alston Primary School, we encourage pupils to develop a love of reading by having a well-stocked library, high-quality home reading books and book selections available in each classroom. All adults recognise the importance of nurturing a culture of reading for pleasure at our school by actively striving to inspire children to read and by providing a wide breadth of opportunities related to reading; this includes regular book talk, recommending texts, participating in a number of annual themed days, reading regularly, competitions, rewards and a focus on the author of the moment.
We actively promote the services provided by local libraries and organise themed events within school, including World Book Day, Roald Dahl Day, National Storytelling Week and the ‘Caught Reading Challenge’. Several Year 6 children take on the role of junior librarian to support our school librarian with promoting reading and the love of books through recommendations, competitions and demonstrating how to access the library.