Reading Spine Y1-6

At St. Mary’s Catholic Primary School, we are committed to ensuring that children are read to, enjoy listening to high-quality books and share their enjoyment of texts through discussion.

Our very own ‘Reading Spine’ is one element of the approach we take to foster a love for reading in our children. The spine is a core of high-quality, challenging books that create a living library inside our children’s minds and which help them to engage at a deeper level and enter the world of the text. We have produced a ‘Reading Spine’ for every year group, giving children access to these high-quality texts. These texts are delved into and are thoroughly explored as part of our English units. Because we know that children bring their existing knowledge to what they are reading, we have, where possible, linked these texts to our History, Geography and Science enquiry questions to provide a cross-curricular approach to learning.

Our VIPERS text extracts, which are used specifically in reading lessons, are selected to complement our Reading Spine books, ensuring that our pupils are subjected to a varied and rich reading diet (encompassing fiction, non-fiction and poetry). By doing so, we are helping our children to connect their knowledge in a meaningful way. Ultimately, while our children are continuing to enjoy a range of books throughout their school journey, they are also learning to become meta-cognitive readers.