At Rosslyn Park, a love and respect of reading underpins our entire curriculum. All topics are based on a high-quality text that both challenges the children and provides a mental model around which the topic can be developed. Writing is intrinsically linked to the text and topic in order to ensure that learning is purposeful and that a clear audience is identified. The chosen texts are challenging and as a Royal Shakespeare Company affiliated school, children are given access to the rich world at a young age.

We aim to create confident, independent readers who not only use their reading skills to improve their language and vocabulary, but who also develop a life-long love and appreciation of reading.

Our teachers demonstrate a love and appreciation for reading and clearly model the key skills that children will need to fully engage with a text.

The texts we teach are challenging. They contain rich, complex language with layers of meaning, and are pitched slightly above the reading age of the majority. The text must be linked to the wider curriculum and should enhance and widen children’s understanding of the current topic. Most importantly, it must enrich the reader.

Throughout the week there is a mixture of adult-led and independent reading. Adults will model reading with fluency and expression and use strategies to allow children to fluently take over reading, either as a class or individually. Children will have the opportunity to read independently at some point throughout the week.

At Rosslyn, reading and writing are intrinsically linked and both support the wider topic of learning. Writing allows the children to demonstrate their understanding of the reading that they are doing and to give it a practical purpose. We believe that children should see the value of communication, both through speech and writing. We feel that their skills in both should give them the power to be heard and allow them to make an impact on the world around them. 

To inspire children to be creative, confident communicators, who write and speak with purpose and precision. These communicators will know their audience and use their learning to engage the reader’s imagination. Learners use rehearsal room pedagogy (developed in partnership with the RSC) to develop their vocabulary and deepen their understanding of authorial processes. 

Children’s written work is displayed in the classrooms and around the school to promote our enjoyment for writing and celebrate school’s stance that Everybody writes. We aim to display everyone’s work in the classroom after each project or where space is limited, there is a variety of work linked to children’s individual learning achievements.