Reading approach
AYRR
At Haslam Park Primary School, we use the Are You Really Reading? (AYRR) toolkit to enhance our existing reading provision and develop pupils’ comprehension skills. AYRR is not a reading scheme, but a flexible toolkit built around five key strands. The approach prioritises consistency and simplicity, with the complexity of the texts adapted to suit pupils’ ages and reading abilities. Through carefully modelled strategies, effective scaffolding and purposeful discussion, we help pupils develop a deeper understanding of what they read and build the skills needed to become confident, independent readers.
https://areyoureallyreading.co.uk/
The Strands
The five strands of the Are You Really Reading? (AYRR) toolkit are designed to help pupils understand, summarise and engage more deeply with what they read.Timelines: Identify five significant events in a text and place them in chronological order to develop understanding of sequence and how ideas change.
Hashtags: Create a concise summary of six words or fewer to capture the main idea of a text, encouraging precise vocabulary and creative thinking.
Emojis: Use emojis to represent characters’ emotions and support interpretations with evidence from the text.
Impression and Evidence (Scaffolding): Explain the impressions a text creates and justify ideas using relevant evidence, developing inference and analytical skills.
The Five Most Important Elements: Identify and justify the five most significant events, themes, characters or examples of dialogue, developing pupils’ ability to recognise importance and make informed judgements.
Year of Reading
The ‘Year of Reading’ at Haslam Park Primary School celebrates the importance of reading for pleasure and developing a lifelong love of books. Through engaging texts, author studies, reading activities and opportunities to share recommendations, pupils explore a wide range of authors, genres and literary experiences. The ‘Year of Reading’ has included a number of extra special enrichment opportunities such as:
Author of Term/ Half Term
At Haslam Park, we celebrate a diverse range of authors through our Authors of the Half Term initiative in EYFS to Year 4 and Authors of the Term in Years 5 and 6, where children explore longer novels in greater depth. Our carefully chosen books include works by ethnically diverse authors and reflect the diversity of our pupils, their cultures and lived experiences. This ensures that children encounter characters, families and communities they can recognise and relate to, while also broadening their understanding of lives and experiences different from their own. By the time pupils leave Haslam Park, they will have experienced the work of over 30 different authors, developing their literary knowledge, discovering new voices and fostering a lifelong love of reading.
Reading for Pleasure
At Haslam Park, we are passionate about developing a lifelong love of reading and ensuring that every child experiences the pleasure, excitement and comfort that books can bring. We believe reading for pleasure is a right for every child. Our approach is informed by research into reading for pleasure, including the work of Teresa Cremin, which highlights the importance of reading communities, positive reading identities and adults who act as reading role models. Our English Lead has attended reading for pleasure training through our Literacy Hub, helping us to further develop our whole-school approach. Reading journeys are displayed in classrooms, celebrating the books and authors children discover, while our two school libraries provide inviting spaces and accessible books for all. Our values libraries, link our school values to books and ignite excellent discussions in class. Daily whole-class reading opportunities allow children to share stories, explore new authors and discuss texts together. Our Reading Plus programme supports the development of reading fluency and comprehension, alongside continued investment in high-quality, diverse and engaging books. Through these experiences, we aim to nurture confident, enthusiastic readers who choose to read for enjoyment, curiosity and connection, both in school and beyond.
Bookmark
At Haslam Park, we work with Bookmark, a literacy charity that supports children to develop their reading skills, confidence and enjoyment of books. Through their reading programme, our pupils receive regular one-to-one reading sessions with trained volunteers who provide encouragement, build positive relationships and help children make progress. These sessions offer valuable opportunities for children to practise reading, develop fluency and comprehension, and experience the enjoyment of sharing a book with a supportive adult. This partnership helps us to ensure that children who need additional support have the opportunity to become confident, enthusiastic readers.
We have also been accepted onto the Bookmark Literacy Partners Programme. Through partnering with them we will get the funding we need to help promote reading for pleasure across the school by engaging families further, improving our libraries and investing in more books that we know our pupils will love.
https://www.bookmarkreading.org/
Access the PageTicker Digital Reading Record:
