At Hillside Primary School, our Reading curriculum is designed to place the needs and aspirations of our pupils at the heart of their learning. Our bespoke curriculum is ambitious and inclusive, empowering every child to be a fluent, critical, and lifelong reader, fostering a deep understanding of literature to help them "Be the BEST they can be".
Our Reading curriculum intent is underpinned by four key attitudes for learning, ensuring our pupils develop the character and literacy skills needed to thrive in the modern world:

● Believe
● Engage
● Succeed
● Try

We deliver a high-quality Reading curriculum that equips pupils with Word Reading (decoding and fluency) and Comprehension (linguistic knowledge and inference) essential for achieving and exceeding the expected standard. Our curriculum is anchored by "Big Ideas" that build progressively. When pupils encounter these concepts, they revisit prior learning to build the mental schema required to navigate complex texts.

BELIEVE: Building Confidence & Belonging
● Word Reading & Fluency (Big Idea): We foster an environment where children believe in their potential by mastering the mechanics of reading. From hearing initial sounds in EYFS to applying complex etymology and morphology in Year 6, we build the confidence to decode any text.
● Vocabulary for Success: We believe vocabulary is the gateway to high achievement. Pupils move from discussing simple word meanings in Year 2 to explaining complex vocabulary in context and using dictionaries independently by Year 4.
● Inclusive Achievement: Through rigorous phonics (GPCs) and scaffolded support, we ensure all pupils—regardless of background—believe they can access Age Related Expectations (ARE) and beyond.

ENGAGE: Curiosity & Connection
● Reading for Pleasure (Big Idea): We spark curiosity by exposing children to a wide range of contemporary and classic poetry, stories, and non-fiction texts.
● Enquiry & Discussion: Pupils engage as active participants. They move from taking turns in discussions in Year 1 to building on others' ideas and challenging views courteously in Upper Key Stage 2.
● Retelling & Performance: Pupils connect with texts by retelling myths and legends and preparing poems or plays for performance, using intonation and volume to engage an audience.

SUCCEED: Precision & Mastery
● Retrieval & Sequence (Big Idea): Success is rooted in precision. Pupils move from identifying titles and events in Year 1 to retrieving information from fiction and non-fiction texts across multiple sentences to link meaning by Year 5.
● Summarising & Themes: Mastery is shown when pupils can move beyond simple sequencing to identify main ideas across multiple paragraphs and discuss recurring themes across a wide range of writing.
● Substantive Mastery: Pupils succeed when they can distinguish between fact and opinion and provide reasoned justifications for their views by the end of Year 6.

TRY: Resilience & Hard Thinking
● Inference & Evidence (Big Idea): Pupils embrace "hard thinking" by moving beyond literal meaning. They "try" different interpretations, using a Point Evidence Explain structure in Year 5 and 6 to justify inferences about characters' motives.
● Prediction & Analysis: We cultivate a culture where children are not afraid to make complex predictions. Pupils transition from predicting based on what has been read to making implied predictions based on themes, conventions, and knowledge of the author.
● Authorial Intent: Children develop resilience by evaluating how authors use figurative language and identifying how structure and presentation contribute to the overall meaning of a text.