At Bennerley Fields we believe that all our pupils can become fluent readers and writers. This is why we teach reading through Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised, which is a systematic and synthetic phonics programme. When we start teaching phonics we follow the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised progression, which ensures pupils build on their growing knowledge of the alphabetic code, mastering phonics to read and spell as they move through school. Alongside Phonics, we promote a love of reading by providing pupils with the opportunity to access our school library as well as organising trips to the local library.  Sensory stories and massage stories are explored by our complex learners. We also ensure our curriculum is built upon high quality texts to engage the students. 

At Bennerley Fields we provide pupils with logins to access The Collins Hub eBooks so you can explore these at home with your child. The Collins Hub eBooks are directly linked to the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds phonics programme. At the start of the year pupils receive individual logins which allows books to be allocated to them by teachers.

At Bennerley Fields School, we work hard to promote and celebrate a love of reading across our school. 

We have increased our bank of accessible reading resources to include reading pens, coloured overlays, symbol supported texts and Yoto players.

We have shared class and pupils' recommended reads in assemblies. Each class has been celebrating books they enjoy reading too with their classroom displays.  

Hardwick's Class Recommended Reads Display

Duffield's Assembly

We use our school library weekly for reading for pleasure and use our local library too to look at books. 

Chatsworth even visited our local charity shop to purchase some books. 

We are now also using Epic Reading as an online resource for reading materials across the curriculum. 

We also use sensory stories and massage stories as a way of exploring texts. 

Our school council have played a big part in helping us choose library monitors to look after our school library and collected ideas for World Book Day from their classes, including our decorate your classroom door competition!

We also celebrate reading as part of our home learning. 

Each class has a reading area where pupils can sit and explore texts throughout the day. 

Pupils have helped pupils to set up outside reading boxes for pupils to use at lunchtimes. 

We have also looked at how we can utilise books more across the curriculum and have reviewed our English texts so that they link to our pupils' interests and abilities. 

Moving forward...

This year, we are excited to be taking part in the EmpathyLab Schools Programme to look at how empathy can be taught through stories. We will be looking at setting up a lunchtime reading club, organising opportunities for author visits, paired reading sessions across school and working more closely with parents and carers to support with sharing stories and developing a love of reading at home.