Reading.
Reading is at the heart of Grangehurst and we want all our children to be passionate about reading. We make sure that all children have access to a range of exciting, diverse and language-rich books and reading materials both across our curriculum and also in our corridor libraries and non-fiction library. We provide many opportunities for children to read, and be read to, throughout the school day.
Children are taught the skills of decoding and comprehension depending on their age and stage of development. All children are encouraged to read at home at least 3 times weekly with an adult.
EYFS and KS1 have a taught daily phonics session. This teaches children to hear, say, read and write the full range of sounds needed to read and write independently. We are following the synthetics phonics programme – Monster Phonics. 
KS2 have a taught 40-minute session, 3 times weekly, which follows the Literary Leaves programme developed by the Literacy Tree. This involves the study of carefully selected texts at a whole-class level. Through this, children are taught the following key skills of reading comprehension: predicting, clarifying, evaluating, inferencing, making connections, summarising and questioning and how to apply them in a wider range of contexts.
Grangehurst Reading Buddies
Reading buddies is a programme in our school in which KS2 pupils are paired with EYFS and KS1 pupils to read together. All of our reading buddies receive training that includes reading coaching skills and strategies.
Yr 2 Child ‘I really like it when my reading buddy helps me out with my reading. I am also really enjoying my book.’
Yr 2 Child ‘I like it when I learn new words and my partner helps me with the meaning so I understand.’
Yr 6 Child ‘It’s really nice to help the younger children with their reading and teach them something new.’
Yr 6 Child ‘It makes you proud when the children learn a new word, I feel proud.’
Our non-fiction library
As a school, we have an amazing school library, which showcases the very best non-fiction books. Children have the opportunity to choose a book from the library to enjoy at home, this is in addition to their reading book.
In Year 1 we have 'Love to Read' books, which go home each week with the children to support reading for pleasure at home. These are high quality picture books that the children can enjoy at home. This goes alongside their Monster Phonics reading book.