"The more that you read, the more things you will know.

The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go."

- Dr.Seuss 

Reading lies at the heart of our curriculum at Hatchlands. It enables children to access the world around them and equips them with the essential skills needed to participate fully and confidently in society.

Our intention is to inspire a lifelong love of reading and storytelling. We strive to create a community of enthusiastic, independent readers who read with confidence, fluency and a secure understanding of what they have read. Reading is placed at the centre of the curriculum, with teachers carefully selecting high-quality, engaging and purposeful texts to motivate and challenge all learners.

Through regular exposure to a wide range of fiction, non-fiction and poetry, we aim to develop the habit of reading widely and often, both for pleasure and for information. Rigorous and systematic phonics teaching ensures that children develop strong decoding skills, alongside fluency, expression and increasingly sophisticated comprehension strategies.

Children will learn about:

• Word reading and the skills required to read accurately and fluently

• The importance of reading with appropriate intonation, expression and phrasing

• How words and language are used to communicate meaning

• Effective ways to understand what they have read through a range of comprehension skills, including listening and reading
   

Children will learn how to:

• Decode unfamiliar words using taught phonics and learnt sounds

• Read an increasing number of words accurately and automatically by sight

• Answer and discuss questions about texts they have read to demonstrate understanding