Reading

Reading at CBINS

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At Castle Bromwich Infant and Nursery School, our curriculum is underpinned by three core values that shape every aspect of our children's learning journey: perseverance, belonging, and kindness. These values are not simply words on our walls – they are the driving forces that inform our curriculum intent, implementation, and the impact we strive to achieve for every child.

Perseverance is woven throughout our curriculum to ensure that all children develop resilience, determination, and a growth mindset. We design learning experiences that challenge our pupils appropriately, teaching them that mistakes are valuable opportunities for learning and that sustained effort leads to success. Through carefully sequenced teaching and supportive scaffolding, we help children build the confidence to tackle new concepts, persist when learning becomes difficult, and celebrate their progress along the way.

Belonging is at the heart of our inclusive curriculum. We are committed to ensuring that every child – regardless of background, starting point, or individual need – feels valued, respected, and an integral part of our school community. Our curriculum celebrates diversity, promotes equality, and actively removes barriers to learning and wellbeing. We create opportunities for children to understand and appreciate different cultures, faiths, and perspectives, whilst developing a strong sense of identity and pride in who they are. Through our curriculum, children learn that they belong not only to our school community but also to the wider world, with rights and responsibilities as active citizens.

Kindness permeates every interaction and learning opportunity within our school. Our curriculum explicitly teaches children to show empathy, compassion, and respect towards others, whilst also developing their understanding of healthy relationships and emotional wellbeing. We provide rich opportunities for children to collaborate, support one another, and contribute positively to their school and local community. Through our focus on kindness, children learn to recognise and celebrate the achievements of others, to offer help when it's needed, and to treat everyone – including themselves – with care and consideration.

Together, these three values ensure that our curriculum not only delivers high-quality academic outcomes but also nurtures well-rounded, confident, and compassionate individuals who are prepared for their next steps in education and for life in modern Britain.

Intent - Reading lies at the heart of the curriculum at CBINS and provides the foundation for a lifetime of learning. We aim to ensure all children become readers and foster a love and enjoyment of reading through listening to and interacting with a variety of literature, genres and authors. Children learn to hear and say sounds, segment and blend with developing fluency, as well as sharing and talking about their reading experiences and understanding new vocabulary. Children are encouraged to persevere with their phonics and decoding to become fluent, skilled readers. We aim for children to be absorbed in as many opportunities to enjoy and celebrate reading, as we believe reading is key for academic success.  Our reading curriculum includes a diverse range of books that reflect different cultures, abilities, family structures and lived experiences. These carefully chosen texts help children see themselves represented in literature, promoting a strong sense of identity and belonging. At the same time, they support the development of empathy and kindness by encouraging children to understand and appreciate perspectives different from their own.

Implementation –We implement this by embedding reading throughout our children’s learning across all areas of the curriculum and their personal experiences. From the library to workshops with parents, our aim is to build a community of engaged readers who turn to reading for meaning and pleasure. For the teaching of early reading skills, children are baselined, grouped and continually assessed. We then follow a systematic phonics programme incorporating Letters and Sounds, ensuring maximum participation to meet and go beyond national expectations as outlined in the EYFS and KS1 curricula. For the teaching of comprehension skills and early vocabulary development, modelling and discussions around books is key. Guided and shared reading further develops this, as well as children’s range and understanding of vocabulary.

Impact – Our Reading curriculum leads to good results in both Key Stages. At the end of EYFS, 80% of children met or exceeded ELG for Reading compared to 75% nationally. In Year 1, pupils consistently score above national expectations in the phonics screening. At the end of KS1, 81% of children achieved the expected standard in Reading compared to 75% nationally, with an additional 27% reaching the standard for greater depth. Children develop their reading accuracy and fluency as well as their knowledge and understanding of word meanings and vocabulary. Above all, children develop a love of reading, showing excitement and interest, inspiring them to be lifetime readers.