📚 Reading and Vocabulary Across the Curriculum

At Allington with Sedgebrook Church of England Primary School, we believe that reading is the gateway to learning and a powerful tool for nurturing wisdom, curiosity, and compassion. Rooted in our Christian values of Respect, Wisdom, and Friendship, we are committed to ensuring that every child becomes a confident, fluent reader with a rich and expressive vocabulary.

Literacy is fundamental to all areas of the curriculum. It enables children to access knowledge, articulate ideas, and engage meaningfully with the world around them. A strong foundation in reading and vocabulary not only supports academic achievement but also empowers pupils to flourish socially, spiritually, and emotionally.

We ensure that:

• Reading is prioritised across all subjects, not just within English lessons. Pupils encounter high-quality texts in science, history, geography, RE, and the arts, allowing them to build subject-specific vocabulary and deepen their understanding.
• Vocabulary instruction is systematic and inclusive, with a focus on Tier 2 and Tier 3 words that unlock meaning and support precision in communication.
• Oral rehearsal and structured discussion are embedded into teaching, helping pupils to explore language, clarify thinking, and develop confidence in speaking and listening.
• Reading for pleasure is celebrated, with access to diverse texts that reflect different cultures, experiences, and genres.
• Targeted support and challenge ensure that all pupils—from their individual starting points—make strong progress and leave Year 6 able to read fluently and with comprehension in line with their chronological age.

Through our curriculum and enrichment offer we provide meaningful opportunities for children to encounter language in real-world contexts, fostering a lifelong love of reading and learning.

For children to understand a text and ensure that they comprehend all that they have read, they must know the meaning of 95% of the words in a text. Our pupils are faced with challenging texts daily and a good deal of the reading in our classrooms will include vocabulary that is unfamiliar and difficult.

The words we use can be organised into three tiers:

Tier 1 – these are words that are used every day in our classrooms.

Tier 3 – these are technical words that are used in our curriculum subjects.

Tier 2 – these are words that need to be taught explicitly so that our children can use them to make sense of the technical Tier 3 vocabulary.