Reading for Pleasure

Reading for Pleasure

At The Nightingale Federation, we fully value the importance of reading for pleasure, recognising its significant contribution to both educational outcomes and personal development. We are committed to fostering a love of reading in our pupils, which is central to the National Curriculum’s expectations for reading.

Once children have completed Read Write Inc. comprehension, they are given the opportunity to access our well-stocked library, which caters for the full range of reading ages and interests. Books are levelled using the Lexile system to support individual progress and reading development. This approach aligns with the expectations of the National Curriculum, ensuring children have access to appropriately challenging texts that support their reading journey.

In addition, each classroom is equipped with an appealing selection of books that are regularly refreshed. This provides pupils with daily access to a broad and varied range of texts that encourage independent reading and exploration, fostering a love of books and stories.

Our carefully designed ‘Book Led’ writing curriculum exposes children to a variety of genres and authors, which are specifically chosen to engage pupils’ interests and broaden their reading experiences. This supports the requirement for pupils to develop their understanding of different literary genres, styles, and authors, and to develop a love of reading that extends beyond the classroom.

In line with reading expectations, which highlight the importance of encouraging children to become enthusiastic and confident readers, we established our first pupil-led reading group in September. The group aims to share their passion and enthusiasm, fostering a school-wide culture of reading. Our reading ambassadors have led numerous initiatives designed to raise the profile of reading for pleasure across the school.

One of the most successful initiatives has been our class ‘Reading Scrapbooks’, which have been particularly well-received by pupils, encouraging them to reflect on and engage with the books they read. Our ambassadors have also helped plan special reading events and competitions that promote engagement with reading, such as our recent whole-school ‘Book Swap’, our ‘Performance Poetry’-inspired World Book Day, and the ‘Book in a Box’ competition. These initiatives aim to inspire a love for reading, promote oracy, and ensure that reading is seen as an enjoyable and integral part of school life.

We also host whole-school family reading mornings, where families are invited to join their children in the classroom to enjoy books together. These sessions encourage a shared love of reading and offer families the opportunity to become more involved in their child’s reading journey. These mornings have proven to be an incredibly positive and engaging way to foster a school-wide culture of reading.

Through these efforts, we strive to exceed the National Curriculum's goal of ensuring that every child becomes a fluent and motivated reader, while also ensuring our reading provision develops enjoyment in reading as a life-long joy and skill.