Hi, I'm Mrs Blackhurst, the Reading Lead here at Joseph Turner!
I’ve been part of the Joseph Turner family for 14 years and reading is my passion - you can never read a book too many times! My role is to nurture a love of reading in every child, ensuring that they develop the skills, confidence and imagination they need to become lifelong readers. I believe that reading is the gateway to learning; when children read widely and often, they grow into curious, knowledgeable and creative thinkers. My aim is to make reading enjoyable, accessible and inspiring for every pupil. I love finding new books that inspire and make me laugh - picture books are my favourite. 

It is much too difficult to name a favourite book, so here are my top 5:

 

Last year we got to meet Nick Sharratt who has written and illustrated many

amazing books - my favourite being Shark in the Park!

Our Reading vision:

At Joseph Turner we are committed to:

• Developing enthusiastic, fluent readers who have strong comprehension and vocabulary skills
• Building a rich reading culture throughout the school, from Nursery to Year 6
• Ensuring every child has access to high‑quality texts that reflect our diverse world
• Supporting children who find reading challenging, so that no child is left behind
• Celebrating reading as a joyful, shared experience through Jackanory 

How we teach reading: 

Early reading - We follow a structured, systematic phonics programme to ensure a strong start: Read Write Inc. Children learn to decode confidently through daily lessons, consistent routines and regular practice. Children read matched decodable books to help children apply their phonics knowledge as they go and take these home as home readers too. Once they are confident, they access RWI Comprehension in Year 2.

Reading lessons:

As pupils progress, we teach reading daily through high‑quality texts that challenge and excite them. Lessons focus on fluency and VIPERS: vocabulary, inference, prediction, explanation, retrieval. KS1 children also access a weekly reading lesson in addition to phonics. 

Reading for pleasure:

We encourage children to develop a love for reading through reading displays throughout school, a well stocked library, class reading corners, daily reading aloud in reading lessons, reading events such as World Book Day, author visits and book fairs. In addition to this all year groups regularly visit our local library - Glebefields so we can access a wider range of books and enjoy stories and events run by the librarians. 

 

How you can help at home:

Your involvement makes a huge difference. Here are simple ways to support reading at home:

• Read together daily – any reading counts!
• Talk about stories, characters and new words
• Visit your local library
• Let your child see you reading too
• Celebrate their achievements
• Use RWI home readers to support your child's early reading. 
• Encourage your child to access accelerated reader quiz's to develop their comprehension skills.

If you ever need advice or book recommendations, I’m always happy to help.

 

Intent

At Joseph Turner we believe that a quality English curriculum will teach pupils to speak and write fluently so that they can communicate their ideas and emotions to others, and through their reading and listening, others can communicate with them. We have a rigorous and well organised English curriculum that provides many purposeful opportunities for reading, writing and discussion. Our curriculum closely follows the aims of the National Curriculum for English 2014 to enable all children to:
• Read, write and speak with confidence, fluency and understanding.
• Understand the connections between the spoken and written word.
• Use a full range of appropriate strategies (phonic, graphic, grammatical, contextual) to deal with reading and writing challenges independently.
• Have an interest in books and read for pleasure.
• Have an interest in words, their meanings; developing a growing vocabulary in spoken and written forms.
• Understand a range of text types and genres – be able to write in a variety of styles and forms appropriate to the situation.
• Have the powers of imagination, inventiveness and critical awareness.
 • Have a suitable technical vocabulary to articulate their responses.
These aims are embedded across our English, Reading Lessons, Phonics (RWI) lessons and the wider curriculum. We will provide the means for children to develop a secure knowledgebase in English, which follows a clear pathway of progression as they advance through the primary curriculum. Rigorous assessment and review will ensure that we are able to provide targeted support so that all children experience success in English; we believe that a secure basis in English skills is crucial to a high-quality education and will give our children the tools they need to participate fully as a member of society.

 Implementation

Early reading is supported through the Read Write Inc scheme which is a high-quality systematic synthetic phonics programme. Regular training and development days ensure that staff are equipped to teach with the expertise and skills required to promote excellent progress, as well as a love of reading. Alongside RWI, Years 1 and 2 complete a reading lesson each week, over the half term they will explore 1 quality text in detail, developing comprehension skills using VIPERS.

In KS2, when children have completed the RWI programme, they have a reading lesson daily to develop deeper reading skills following VIPERS to ensure that they comprehend what they read. Children will spend time exploring their class text in detail and also key texts from the reading spine. Lower KS2 explore the same text over a week, focusing on a different VIPER each day. Upper KS2 develop the skills of exploring multiple VIPERS within a lesson. Struggling readers in KS2 are assessed using RWI assessments and then grouped accordingly to their needs – children in Years 4, 5 and 6 access Freshstart. Y3 children join KS1 phonics and are assessed every 6 weeks or sooner if identified as making accelerated progress. We are following this approach as it is routed in research, children become fluent by re-reading, it supports the Reading framework (2023) and it suits our children at the stage they are working at. Each class’s timetable is organised to enable weekly access to the KS1 and KS2 library, with an up to date selection of books to provide quality reading materials for all children to promote reading for pleasure. Book supplies are refreshed and updated regularly so that pupils are exposed to a range of genres. Children are encouraged to talk about their books and reading in lessons and also during ‘book club’ time, where staff also model an enjoyment of reading. Reading is prioritised and promoted in every class with inviting book corners and daily Jackanory time where a story is shared, read aloud by an adult. Reading is imbedded across the curriculum and books are used within topics to deepen children’s understanding and develop enjoyment.

Impact
The impact and measure is to ensure children not only acquire the appropriate age-related knowledge linked to the English National Curriculum, but also skills which equip them to progress from their starting points, and within their everyday lives. Long term pupils will:
• Be confident in the art of reading and to be able to use this skill to further their learning and enable them to be eager to learn through exploring their own passions.
• Be able to read fluently both for pleasure and to further their learning.
• Enjoy reading across a range of genres.

• Feel confident to read aloud.

• Develop a wide vocabulary from books and be adventurous with vocabulary choices within their writing.
• Leave primary school being able to effectively apply spelling rules and patterns they have been taught.
• Pupils of all abilities will be able to succeed in reading and comprehend what they have read.

• Pupils will develop a love of reading and be able to speak about their favourite authors or themes in books.

• Make good and better progress from their starting points to achieve their full potential.
We aim that as children move on from Joseph Turner Primary to further their education and learning, that their creativity, passion for English and high aspirations travel with them and continue to grow and develop as they do.