Reading

Reading Intent

At Hilltop Primary Academy, we believe that reading is the gateway to the entire curriculum. From Year 2 onwards, children move from learning to read through phonics to Reading to Learn—a structured, high-impact approach that develops confident, analytical and fluent readers who can access and interpret a wide range of texts independently.

Our Reading to Learn sessions follow a clear, consistent weekly structure that builds knowledge, fluency and comprehension in a deliberate and progressive way. Through explicit modelling, purposeful questioning and repeated practice, children learn how to approach a text with confidence, curiosity and precision.

Our Approach

Reading to Learn is built on several key principles:

• Whole-text understanding first – Children read the entire text before answering questions, ensuring comprehension precedes task completion.
• Explicit vocabulary instruction – Tier 2 and Tier 3 vocabulary is taught directly and revisited, enabling children to unlock increasingly complex texts.
• Fluency through performance – Reading Theatre sessions develop expression, phrasing and prosody, helping children read with meaning and confidence.
• Live modelling of comprehension skills – Teachers model how to retrieve, infer, summarise, predict and analyse language and structure.
• Independent application – Children apply taught skills in carefully constructed SATs-style questions within a timed 20-minute session each week.
• Evidence-led responses – Children are explicitly taught to highlight keywords in questions and locate evidence in the text, embedding text-bound answers and precision.

Our weekly structure ensures deliberate practice across key comprehension domains: vocabulary, retrieval, summary, inference, prediction, language analysis, structure and comparison. While one domain is prioritised each week, children experience a balanced diet of skills to ensure breadth and depth.

Our Core Intent

Through Reading to Learn, we aim for all children to:

• Read fluently, accurately and with expression.
• Develop a rich and secure vocabulary.
• Locate, select and justify evidence from texts.
• Think critically and articulate ideas clearly.
• Understand how authors craft meaning through language and structure.
• Engage with a diverse range of fiction, non-fiction and poetry.

By providing a structured, vocabulary-rich and carefully modelled approach, we ensure that children move beyond surface understanding to deep comprehension. Reading becomes not simply an exercise in answering questions, but a powerful tool for learning, thinking and exploring the wider world.