Reading at Oakfield High School and College 

“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go” 

Reading is a golden thread which is central to all learning, life, and our core values at Oakfield. The development of language is at the heart of all aspects of learning, and the curriculum, in and out of the classroom.  

Reading is incorporated into learner’s daily life at Oakfield, through individual reading, time to explore the library, to challenging texts throughout the curriculum. Reading development is integral to all subjects across the curriculum. We teach our learners to read in the different subject disciplines, e.g. the arts, science, and mathematics, understanding the vast variety of specialist phases and terms that learners are needed to grasp to access the subject.  

We encourage reading at home. Learners have reading and interest books which they take home, to read individually, or with an adult who can model, and support misconceptions.  

Start Well Feel Well, takes place during form time, this time gives learners the opportunity to get ready for learning and for their day ahead. Learners engage in the use of sensory circuits, and reading, both individually supported by an adult, and also teacher reading. As part of the Words for All initiative, form teachers regularly read complex, challenging texts aloud to young people; an approach which is backed by research, which supports their language and vocabulary development.

In English lessons, learners follow the phonics programme ‘Unlocking Letter’s and sounds’. Learners work on an appropriate phase for their learning, and the skills learned are transferred across the curriculum. Learners reading books link to the phase they are working on to further support their phonetical development as they segment and blend as they read.