Reading
Our Ethos
At Pashley, we are passionate about reading and the power of quality texts. We place great importance on nurturing a lifelong love of reading in every child who joins our school. Reading is the golden thread that runs through everything we do, with stories and books at the heart of our curriculum.
Choosing Texts
When selecting texts, we aim for a balance of fiction, non-fiction and poetry. We choose emotionally powerful books that explore important human experiences and strong feelings, alongside traditional tales with clear narrative structures. We also value texts with a strong musical quality, including those that make use of poeticised speech.
Reading is one of the most important ways in which children encounter and absorb high-quality language. While grammar and vocabulary are key elements of the curriculum, at Pashley these are taught in a meaningful, contextualised way—through the enjoyment of shared reading.
Shared Reading
Shared reading takes place at least once a day—both at snack time and at the end of the day. We are proud to be one of the few schools in the area that continues to preserve snack time in Key Stage 1. We believe that daily time to relax, enjoy a snack in the warmth, and listen to a story is an entitlement for every child.
To enrich this experience further, we have developed our own collection of Pashley Enrichment Texts: ten carefully selected books for each year group that teachers ensure are shared during the year. These texts were chosen using award shortlists, recommendations from the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education (CLPE), and our own commitment to giving children a rich and varied “diet” of high-quality literature. (See the list attached below.)
Modelled Reading
In addition to shared reading, we place strong emphasis on modelled reading. Over recent years, we have invested significantly in sets of 30 books per year group to support our Modelling Monday sessions. Every Monday, class teachers introduce the weekly class reading text using a visualiser, with each child following along in their own copy. Together, children take turns reading in unison and echo reading with their teacher.
To build fluency, the book is then sent home for the week, with parents encouraged to read it with their child at least three times. This home–school partnership ensures that children practise, enjoy, and internalise the rhythm and language of the text.
Phonics at Pashley
Phonics provides the foundation for early reading success. At Pashley, we follow the Pashley Phonics programme, which is taught daily in Reception and Key Stage 1. Lessons are fast-paced, engaging and systematic, enabling children to build strong word recognition and decoding skills.
Children are regularly assessed so that support can be tailored to their needs. Where necessary, extra phonics interventions are put in place to ensure that every child keeps up and has the tools to become a confident, independent reader.
Book Corners
Every classroom at Pashley has a welcoming and themed book corner to make reading irresistible. These areas may feature author reviews, book reviews, “book talk” icons, toys to cuddle up with, books of the week and story sacks.
To make them accessible, all our book corners use baskets with front-facing books. Children can easily pick up a basket, flick through the texts and settle down to read. We ensure that corners are stocked with exciting, current texts and avoid overcrowding so that every book feels special.
Reading Environments
Beyond book corners, we create inspiring reading environments across the school.
We are especially proud of our beautiful underwater library, a unique space that children visit weekly. Each class has a library slot where children use their very own library card to check out a book of their choice for one to two weeks. This fosters independence, ownership and, most importantly, a love of reading. We use Reading Cloud to support this system, which helps children track and celebrate their reading journey.
Reading is celebrated everywhere at Pashley—through displays, author studies, story weeks and opportunities to share favourite books with friends.
Promoting a Love of Reading
To nurture a lifelong love of reading, we:
- Read aloud daily to introduce children to new authors and inspire curiosity.
- Encourage and model reading for pleasure, helping children to see reading as a joyful habit.
- Provide a varied range of texts in classrooms, book corners and the library.
- Celebrate “Stop, Drop and Read”, when the whole school pauses to enjoy a book at the same time.
- Reward regular reading: every child who reads at home at least four times in a week earns five Class Dojos.
- Celebrate World Book Day with exciting events, visiting authors and dress-up fun. In recent years we have welcomed Rob Biddulph, Chris Riddell, Tony Peek (local poet), Annabelle Marriott (local author) and many more.
- Mark World Poetry Day each year, celebrating language, rhythm and performance.
Working with Parents
At Pashley, we recognise that parents are children’s first and most important educators. We work in close partnership with families to support reading at home. Children take home decodable books matched to their phonics stage, alongside a “reading for pleasure” book to enjoy with their family.
Parents are given guidance on how to support their child’s reading, including through workshops, information sessions and regular communication from teachers. Our expectation is that children read at home at least three times a week, with parents recording this in their child’s reading diary.
