Reading at Parochial
'Parochial Cares', our mission is to prepare children for the future by living, learning and growing together in God.
To live life... life in all its fullness- (John 10:10)
Vision:
At Parochial, we believe in the transformative power of reading. Our reading curriculum is designed to equip all children with the skills and motivation to read fluently, widely, and for pleasure. We foster a love of reading by exposing pupils to a diverse range of high-quality literature that enriches their understanding of the world and helps them develop emotionally, socially, and intellectually. By the time they leave us, our pupils are confident, fluent readers who use books to inform, inspire, and empower themselves—ready for the next stage of their education and lifelong learning.
Implementation:
Click an image below to see how we embed our school values through Reading at Parochial.
At Parochial, we are:
Reading-At-Parochial- (ID 1038)
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Educating for Dignity and Respect through Reading
Educating for Dignity and Respect through Reading
Through a diverse and representative selection of texts, children explore themes of respect, justice, and empathy. They encounter characters who face challenges and make moral choices, encouraging reflection on their own values. Pupils are taught to listen respectfully to differing viewpoints and to appreciate the richness of varied perspectives. We explicitly teach children to see books as windows into other lives, mirrors of their own experiences, and doors to new worlds.
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Educating for Hope and Aspiration through Reading
Educating for Hope and Aspiration through Reading
Our reading curriculum introduces children to characters, ideas, and worlds beyond their own, inspiring curiosity, empathy, and ambition. Through high-quality texts, pupils encounter diverse perspectives, cultures, and life experiences, fostering high aspirations and a sense of possibility. From the earliest stages of Read Write Inc. stories to the rich narratives in Pathways to Read, we equip pupils with the tools to understand the world and imagine their place within it.
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Educating for Wisdom, Knowledge and Skills through Reading
Educating for Wisdom, Knowledge and Skills through Reading
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Phonics and Early Reading: Systematic, synthetic phonics is taught daily through the Read Write Inc. Phonics programme in EYFS and Key Stage 1, with fidelity to the programme’s structure and resources. This ensures that all children learn to decode and blend confidently, including those who need additional practice through ‘keep-up’ and targeted interventions.
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Fluency Development: Children are supported to become fluent readers through daily practice, including re-reading familiar texts, partner reading, and precise teacher modelling. We ensure fluency is explicitly taught, in line with the EEF guidance on reading fluency and the Reading Framework.
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Comprehension: In Year 2, pupils transition to Read Write Inc. Comprehension, which builds on phonics foundations, developing comprehension strategies such as retrieval, inference, and vocabulary knowledge.
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Pathways to Read: From Year 2 onwards, we follow Pathways to Read, a mastery-based approach that provides carefully selected, high-quality texts across a range of genres, themes, and cultural contexts. It explicitly teaches reading comprehension strategies such as summarising, predicting, inferring, and comparing texts, with a strong focus on vocabulary development and oral language.
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Reading for Pleasure: Teachers model reading aloud daily, and all classes have dedicated time for shared reading and storytime. We ensure our reading offer includes texts that are age-appropriate, diverse, and reflect a range of lived experiences.
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Educating for Community and Living Well Together through Reading
Educating for Community and Living Well Together through Reading
Reading at Parochial is a collective experience. Children learn to collaborate, discuss, and debate ideas through shared texts. Partner reading, group analysis, and whole-class discussions are embedded in our daily practice, supporting oral language development and deepening comprehension. Reading is celebrated across the school community through events such as book fairs, shared reading challenges, and communal storytimes.
Impact:
By the end of Key Stage 1, children are fluent, confident readers, with secure phonics knowledge and the fluency required to access the wider curriculum. By the time they leave Parochial, pupils have a deep understanding of a wide range of texts, strong vocabulary knowledge, and the ability to make connections across subjects and themes. They can think critically about what they read, articulate their ideas clearly, and apply their reading skills across the curriculum.
Most importantly, they leave us with a love of reading—understanding that books are a source of enjoyment, learning, and reflection that can enrich their lives beyond the classroom.