At Epsom Primary and Nursery School, reading underpins our curriculum. It is our aim and vision that all pupils leave our provision as fluent and confident readers, who develop a love of reading through regularly reading for pleasure and purpose. We strive to ensure our pupils are exposed to a variety of high-quality, diverse texts so that they can be inspired to talk in detail and at length about their reading and share this passionately with all stakeholders. Our aim is to ensure every child makes progress so that all children are ready for the next stage of their education.

Pupils are initially taught the skills to decode words moving on then to developing the comprehension skills and strategies necessary to understand the text content and answer a range of challenging questions. We ensure that readers of all abilities are presented with texts that are challenging and ambitious, whilst enabling them to apply the reading skills they have been taught. Our class reads enable all pupils to hear high-level texts being read aloud for pleasure.

Reading occurs throughout the curriculum and pupils transfer their skills across all lessons. Wherever possible, whole-class reading texts link to areas of the wider-curriculum enabling pupils to deepen their knowledge and understanding, whilst bringing the subject to life. Our Power of Reading class texts offer challenging and engaging reads that give our pupils the opportunity to connect the reading and writing process. 

All pupils’ starting points are considered and through our Accelerated Reader programme - and the range of books we offer to pupils - we strive to ensure every child reaches their reading potential. Our tailored range of interventions ensures pupils are nurtured and supported on their reading journey.

Books can support our pupils across a range of social, emotional and mental health issues. We strive to ensure our school library provides a fully-inclusive and diverse range of titles and themes to meet the needs of our community.