Reading

Introduction to Reading

At Ruskin, reading is a part of the culture among staff and students. We endeavour to prepare students with the reading skills required to ensure access to the wider world. Through promoting a love of reading, employing quality first teaching strategies and delivering rigorous intervention programmes, students will advance their vocabulary and articulate themselves confidently. The importance of reading is integral to our curriculum, and we recognise our moral duty to advocate this so that life expectancy is prolonged and quality of life can be enriched.

Reading Across the Curriculum & Intervention

We have a keen focus on supporting students with their reading across the curriculum. Every time our students are using their Ruskin Reading Strategies, they will see our Ruskin reading icon. This indicates that the teacher will be supporting pupils’ reading. This may involve exploring difficult vocabulary, reducing the text they are reading, finding the key points, or helping them to infer meaning from what they are reading.

Furthermore, we provide intervention for students who require more support with their reading. This may include small group work based on phonics, or work on students’ fluency and comprehension skills.

Sparx Reader

All students are expected to complete 30 minutes of careful reading on Sparx Reader each week. This independent reading time is an essential part of developing reading stamina, comprehension skills and a broader vocabulary. Regular engagement with Sparx Reader supports students’ progress across all subjects.

Reading for Pleasure

In addition to supporting students in and outside of lessons, we love to encourage students to read more widely and for pleasure. We run lots of exciting events for students, including masked reader competitions and themed competitions surrounding current events. Moreover, we run regular book hunts and have book clubs to allow students to cultivate and nurture their love of reading. These are just some of the exciting events you can expect from us at Ruskin!

In summary, we are passionate about reading because we know that reading helps us to:

• Be confident communicators
• Articulate our own emotions and feelings to encourage respect for ourselves and others
• Learn, grow and increase our empathy skills to support our high aspirations

Contacts

For any literacy queries, please contact our Literacy Lead, Miss Lea: leaj@ruskin.cheshire.sch.uk

If you require further support with intervention, please contact Miss Lucas, our lead teacher for phonics and reading intervention: lucase@ruskin.cheshire.sch.uk