At Fordham CE Primary School, we place reading for pleasure at the heart of our English curriculum.

We believe that high-quality, engaging texts provide the foundation for excellent English teaching and learning. Staff carefully select rich and inspiring texts to underpin English lessons and, where possible, link them to the wider class topic. This approach promotes meaningful cross-curricular learning while providing purposeful opportunities for writing across a range of genres, audiences and purposes.

To support the delivery of a progressive and well-sequenced English curriculum, we draw upon and adapt resources from CLPE's Power of Reading, The Literacy Shed writing sequences and the VIPERS approach to reading comprehension. These evidence-informed strategies help us develop confident, enthusiastic readers and writers, while ensuring clear progression in knowledge, skills and understanding across the school.

Our Read Aloud programme enables children to experience and enjoy a diverse range of high-quality texts and stories that they may not otherwise encounter, while benefiting from teachers' modelling of fluent, expressive reading. Through carefully planned opportunities for discussion, children are encouraged to share ideas, develop their understanding and deepen their engagement with texts. We also recognise the important role that illustrations play in storytelling, helping children to explore how images and text work together to create meaning.

Drama and role play are integral to our English curriculum, providing children with immediate and immersive routes into the world of a story. These approaches encourage active exploration of texts, helping pupils to develop empathy, understanding and critical thinking, which they can then apply to both their reading and writing.

From Year 2 to Year 6, children participate in regular Guided Reading sessions using the VIPERS approach to develop key comprehension skills. We also make full use of the rich range of resources offered by The Literacy Shed, including films, animations, photographs and picture books, to inspire language development and stimulate imagination. In addition, we incorporate techniques from Pie Corbett's Talk for Writing to support children's oral language, strengthen their understanding of text structures and language features, and build confidence as writers.

At Fordham CE Primary School, we enrich our English curriculum through a wide range of exciting events and experiences that foster a love of literature and language. Throughout the year, children have opportunities to participate in activities such as Reading for Pleasure Weeks, book fairs, poetry slams and a variety of reading and writing competitions, all designed to inspire enthusiasm for reading and develop confidence as communicators.

Alongside their reading and writing, children are encouraged to develop important skills in editing, discussion and debate. We have been proud to offer unique opportunities to enhance pupils' public speaking and critical thinking skills, including a visit from Lucy Frazer KC MP, during which one of our Year 6 cohorts took part in debating and public speaking activities. Experiences such as these help children to articulate their ideas clearly, listen to differing viewpoints and communicate with confidence.

We believe that theatre and drama play a vital role in developing children's understanding of English and bringing literature to life. As a result, we regularly organise educational visits and welcome visitors into school to enrich learning. These experiences have included trips to the theatre in Ely to enjoy the annual Christmas pantomime, as well as performances and workshops delivered by visiting theatre companies.

Children have also benefited from visits by a range of storytellers and authors, including local author Alison Bruce, performers exploring Aesop's Fables, and Chip the Storyteller. These memorable experiences provide opportunities for children to engage with storytelling, participate in drama workshops and gain first-hand insight into the creative process, further inspiring their reading and writing.

Below is a snapshot of the high-quality texts that form part of our Power of Reading English curriculum. We review our curriculum regularly to ensure it remains engaging, relevant and ambitious; therefore, the texts studied may be updated and refined from year to year.

Reading for Pleasure

Reading a wide range of texts is incredibly important for children, and our aim is to foster a genuine love of reading for pleasure. To support this, we have invested significantly in enhancing our school library and creating welcoming reading corners in every classroom, ensuring that children have access to high-quality books throughout the day. Using reward funds earned through our bi-annual book fairs, we continue to expand and enrich our collection of engaging texts.

Please click here to find out more about Reading at Fordham.

Book Week

We hold a Book Week twice a year, giving children the opportunity to celebrate reading through a range of exciting activities and competitions. Past competitions have included Read in a Strange Place, Dress a Potato or Root Vegetable as a Book Character, Book in a Jar, Book on a Pebble, and creating favourite book characters from lollysticks.

Each Book Week is built around a fun and inspiring theme. Previous themes have included Magic, Favourite Book Characters, Superheroes and Animals. More recently, children dressed up as an ambitious adjective to support our whole-school focus on developing rich and ambitious vocabulary in their writing. It was a fantastic opportunity to have fun while learning lots of exciting new words.

Book Week is always a highlight of the school year, with staff joining in the celebrations too. One memorable event saw the staff dress up as crayons from The Day the Crayons Quit as part of a whole-school writing experience, inspiring creativity and enthusiasm for reading and writing across the school.

Scholastic Book Fairs

We also host Scholastic Book Fairs throughout the year, providing children with the opportunity to access high-quality books for home as well as school. Through these events, we can earn up to 60% of sales in rewards to spend on the Scholastic website, enabling us to further enhance our reading provision.

Our Year 6 Librarians and School Council work alongside Mrs Bramley, our English Lead, to help select new books for the school. Together, they consider the interests and needs of pupils across both Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2, ensuring our collection remains diverse, engaging and relevant for all children. 

Speaking and Listening: Debate

We place a strong emphasis on developing children's speaking and listening skills, enabling them to express their ideas confidently, listen respectfully to others and participate in debates using appropriate protocols. Our pupils enjoy sharing their opinions, exploring different perspectives and challenging each other's thinking through thoughtful discussion.

During a previous visit, Year 6 had the exciting opportunity to work with Lucy Frazer, who led the children in two engaging debating activities:

1. Hot Air Balloon Debate – pupils had to justify which character should be saved and persuade others to agree with their decision.
2. Formal Debate – Should school uniform be banned?

The children thoroughly enjoyed learning how to construct persuasive arguments, build confidence and develop their public speaking skills. They were exceptionally well behaved throughout, listening attentively, asking insightful questions and responding with maturity and eloquence.

Since then, we have continued to embed these approaches across the school, providing regular opportunities for pupils to debate, discuss and present their views. As a result, children are developing the confidence to articulate their ideas clearly, justify their opinions with evidence and listen thoughtfully to the views of others. These valuable skills support learning across the curriculum and help prepare pupils for future education and life beyond primary school.

Lucy's closing message to the children was:

"If you believe in yourself, then others will believe in you."

This inspiring experience reinforced the importance of self-belief, effective communication and having the confidence to make their voices heard.