DNA is a reading school. We believe that reading is a vital skill which is the gateway to lifelong success in the world. As a teaching team, we understand how vital it is for our children to be confident readers for academic success and positive wellbeing.

Our reading curriculum seeks to promote a genuine love of reading. Whilst instilling this, we carefully sequence and structure reading sessions to develop excellent fluency and comprehension.

To be a reading school, we know it is important to promote and celebrate reading wherever and whenever we can, here’s how we do this:

We celebrate reading in our learning environments

We celebrate children who read widely and often at home

All children have access to the BOOM READER app this is a brilliant resource where parents and children can log any reading happening at home. Every month our teachers set their class a reading scrapbook challenge, this is a fun project based on any books children are enjoying at home. 

We believe that reading is our superpower! Each week our staff look out for Northgate Reading Heroes.

A reading hero is someone who will:

We provide a wide and diverse diet of texts within each year group

Teachers plan text choices carefully ensuring each text extends children’s knowledge of the world, complementing the aims of our knowledge-based curriculum. Each year group has a ‘100 Brilliant Books list’ which children can read both at home and at school. These high-quality texts aim to deepen and broaden their vocabulary. Modern and classic authors are incorporated into the list, as well as poetry.

Click on our 'Book List' tab to see our 100 Brilliant Books lists!

We build strong reading foundations

At Northgate a child’s reading journey begins with excellent Phonics teaching in EYFS, Year 1 and Year 2. We teach phonics using the Little Wandle scheme which provides rigorous progression and assessment ensuring all children at Northgate learn to read with fluency.

We build on our strong reading foundations

Reading fluency and comprehension is further developed in EYFS and KS1 through shared reading. In KS2 whole class reading is an enriching experience where our children immerse themselves in a shared text. They become invested in reading sessions through their shared love of the text which they unpick and understand together.

We promote reading in our community

Every Thursday, we hold a stay and read morning. This is a time for our community to get together, enjoy a warm drink, some breakfast and a story. It's a really positive way to start a Thursday. Throughout the year we hold reading events such as author visits and dual language storyteller events. We are also proud to say we have our very own community library, books for adults and children are free to borrow at any time.