Authors as Readers
We are Authors as Readers
At Sea Mills Primary, reading is at the heart of our curriculum. Our team of educators recognise that reading is the gateway to the rest of the curriculum. We know that reading for pleasure impacts on life outcomes and wellbeing, so we take it very seriously.
We believe that with the right teaching and encouragement every child can learn to read and can love reading.
Our Intent
At Sea Mills Primary we aim to develop confident and independent readers by inspiring love of literature and pleasure for reading.
We aim to ensure that children can read a wide variety of texts with fluency, accuracy, and understanding, which will continue to enrich their lives into adulthood. We aim to ensure that all children have developed the two key strands to become successful readers —Language Comprehension and Word Recognition which work seamlessly together to support children as readers.
Reading Rope
Literacy researcher Hollis Scarborough developed the “strands of a rope” metaphor to explain how reading works. The model shows that reading is made up of interconnected skills that must work together. When these strands are woven together, they form “skilled reading,” which occurs when students can read fluently while understanding what they read.
Our Implementation
1. Individual Reading alongside phonics
We begin with the foundations for reading readiness with a focus on speaking and listening skills in 2 and 3 year old Nursery.
We develop phonological awareness through rhyme, story and singing. Exciting and engaging books are chosen to share and are also sent home linked to their interests and as part of our home-school reading partnership. We encourage everyone to talk, play, read and sing with their child. These activities nurture a love of language and reading motivating children to want to read!
In Reception we continue to develop children’s’ identities as readers with wordless texts that encourage storytelling and help us to learn about how books work. In addition to sharing high quality picture books as sharing books, children develop their phonic skills through a systematic and rigorous daily phonics programme called ‘Unlocking Letters and Sounds’.
Alongside joining in with the text that is read to them, children are given a decodable book to read that matches their phonic knowledge. Pupils progress through the phonic phases into Year 1 until they are reading fluently at phase 5 by Year 2. At this point, pupils will move onto book banded books to support children on their journey to becoming ‘Free Readers’ by Years 5 and 6.
Book Band Progression
Our reading expectations for the end of each year group can be seen below, along with the colour band progression and corresponding book numbers. Books are taken from a range of schemes and publishers including Oxford Reading Tree, PM and Engage Literacy.
End of Year 1 expectation = Turquoise Band Book 17
End of Year 2 expectation = White Band Book 23
End of Year 3 expectation = Lime Band Book 26
End of Year 4 expectation = Sapphire Band
End of Year 5 expectation = The children become free readers which means they can select books to read from the library.
Pupils are benchmarked every other term to assess their reading level. Teaching staff will ensure that children are reading at the correct level and that this is consistently monitored to maintain continuity, progression and challenge.
In Year 1, children who reach book level 20 before the end of the year become ‘Lightning Readers’ which means they temporarily come off the numbered system and spend some time reading and enjoying a range of books in the Turquoise and Purple bands to deepen their comprehension skills. The lightning books are identified by a silver sticker. Their Year 2 teacher will then return them to the numbered book system when they have been successfully benchmarked on the Gold Band.
In Year 2, children who reach book level 25 before the end of the year, become ‘Ninja Readers’ which means they also come off the numbered system and read books in the White and Lime bands to develop their comprehension skills. The ninja books are identified by a black sticker. Their Year 3 teacher will then return them to the numbered book system when they have been successfully benchmarked on the Ruby Band.
Once children in year 3 and 4 have reached the end of the Lime band (book level 26), they will come off the numbered system and select books from the Ruby Band. Once they have read widely within this band they will move on to the Sapphire Band. They will then become free readers.
Whole Class Reading lessons
Reading skills, such as inference, prediction and summarising, are taught in regular whole-class reading lessons 3-4 times a week. Children develop appropriate skills through high quality texts, but also through the use of visual resources such as picture books and film clips.
From years 3 to year 6, Reading VIPERS are used to teach reading skills. Year 2 begin reading lessons from Term 3 onwards.
Reception and Year 1 focus on five finger retelling of high quality texts and stories are shared daily in class to develop oracy skills.
Impact
Our pupils are confident, independent readers with a love of reading in a variety of genres. They understand the importance of reading for pleasure and academic success. They read with fluency and enjoyment and are ready for their next steps. Parents and carers are actively involved in developing their child’s ability to read and comprehend what they have read. The importance of reading is understood by all members of staff. Amongst the whole school community there is an unwavering belief that reading is the key to unlocking a child’s future success. Here is our reading progression map:
Reading Expectations – Home and School
Every child at Sea Mills Primary reads regularly with an adult in the school. Our expectation is that parents and carers will read 5x a week minimum with their children and will record their reading in their reading record. Books and reading records must be in school every day.
Reading Rewards System
At Sea Mills, we recognise that creating a love of reading is the most important part of a child’s reading journey. Children are rewarded for their motivation and engagement as readers. Every term, class teachers track children who are reading regularly at home through a raffle ticket system. During the final week of each term, these children choose their own reading prize book and receive a reading certificate. This is a time for them share their love of reading with their peers and enjoy ‘Books and Biscuits’ with Mrs Burtonshaw in our lovely library space.
We understand that reading attainment and progression is a partnership between home and school. If you have any concerns or questions about your child’s reading please speak to your class teacher, our Reading Specialist Teacher, Mrs Goodgame or our reading lead, Mrs Burtonshaw. Please also pass on your book recommendations and reading achievements- we are always celebrating our community of readers and would love to share these.
How you can help at home
Ensure that your child brings their book bag into school every day.
Read every day with your child; 5-10 minutes a day makes a huge difference. Even if your child reads independently it is important that you listen to them read and check that their chosen book is suitable and that they understand what they are reading.
Ask your child questions about the text they have read to check that they understand what they are reading. Don’t overdo this as most important is enjoying the book.
Read to your child at bedtime. This is a good opportunity for children to listen to a range of stories and explore a variety of different genre.
KS1 reading questions and KS2 reading questions
Useful Links to support reading at home
Tips for daily reading and Reading VIPERS
July 26: Summer Reading Challenge
Vicky from Sea Mills Library came in to lead an assembly about the summer reading challenge! All children have been given a token to join. Happy reading.
Authors Week 2025
Sea Mills have had a wonderful Authors week. We had a visit from an Author called Tom Allen who shared his journey to becoming an Author before leading workshops for reading across the school. He then held a book sale after school and also gave us some of his books for our book corners and school library! We have also enjoyed a fabulous world book day where we dressed up as a book character, held classroom book swaps and a drop everything and read. Well done to all staff and children for their participation and hard work.
