At Grangetown Primary School, we believe that reading is the key to unlocking a world of opportunities. We want every child to develop a deep love of reading—to get lost in a book, to explore new worlds, and to experience the joy that reading brings. Reading is at the heart of everything we do, woven into every part of school life, ensuring that all children are prepared for a lifetime of learning.
As a Read Write Inc. school, we lay strong foundations in early reading, ensuring that every child develops the skills they need to become a confident, fluent reader. From the very start, our children are immersed in structured phonics sessions, building the decoding and comprehension skills that will serve them throughout their education.
As children progress through school, we continue to develop their reading through our carefully structured approach, underpinned by the 6 Ps of reading fluency:
- Pitch – High or low? How musical is your voice? Does your voice rise and fall? What tone do you use?
- Punctuation – Which marks do you recognise? How do they dictate how you read? Why has the writer used them?
- Pause – When should you pause? For how long? For what purpose?
- Passion – Can you use emotion in your voice? Are your audience excited by your reading? Why is this vital? Monotone = lacking in empathy and expression.
- Power – Volume: How loud or quiet is your voice? Why? Can your audience hear you? Stress: Which words are emphasised? Why?
- Pace – How fast do you speak? When do you speed up or slow down? Why is this? Are the fastest readers the best?
Our school library is a hub of excitement, where children love to browse and choose books that spark their imagination. We encourage home reading and offer a Virtual Library on our school website, ensuring that all children have access to high-quality books beyond the school day.
Reading is engrained in daily life at Grangetown—we start each day with a book and a bagel, creating a calm and welcoming environment, and we end the day with a class novel, sharing the magic of stories together. Through our Grangetown Greats, we introduce children to classic and modern literature, while our class novels and shared reading sessions allow them to experience a rich variety of texts.
We believe that reading empowers children, giving them the ability to access anything they need in life, from learning new skills to navigating the world around them. We work closely with families to promote a love of reading at home, ensuring that every child has the support they need to become a lifelong reader.
“Reading is essential for those who seek to rise above the ordinary.” – Jim Rohn
At Grangetown Primary, we inspire every child to embrace reading, to dream big, and to discover the endless possibilities within the pages of a book.