At Unity Academy, our aim is for every child to read widely with fluency and comprehension. We want children to become fluent readers, to reach age related expectations or make accelerated progress from their individual starting points. In addition, we want children to develop a love for reading and read for pleasure on a regular basis. Reading is a priority. Our curriculum is designed around the needs of the pupils in our school and there are a variety of approaches to enable the pupils to make good progress. The curriculum is coherently planned and sequenced towards building cumulatively sufficient knowledge and skills to ensure children love, learn and live as global citizens in an everchanging world.

The aims of teaching reading in our school are to develop pupils who:

• develop a love of reading;
• exhibit very positive attitudes towards reading;
• rapidly acquire a secure knowledge of letters and sounds and make sustained progress in learning to read fluently;
• read easily and fluently with good understanding across both fiction and non-fiction;
• acquire a wider vocabulary;
• participate in the teaching of phonics knowledge, skills and understanding in a systematic and enjoyable way;
• develop their reading in all subjects to support their acquisition of knowledge; • read for pleasure both at home and school on a regular basis;
• through their reading develop culturally, emotionally, intellectually, socially and spiritually;
• develop good comprehension drawing from their linguistic knowledge.

See below for a list of 50 Recommended Reads for each year group.