📚 Reading at Cornerstones

At Cornerstones, reading is at the heart of everything we do. We want every child to become a confident, fluent reader who loves books and uses reading to explore the world.

🌟 Our Reading Vision

• Reading opens doors to learning, imagination and opportunity.
• We follow the National Curriculum and DfE Reading & Writing Framework to ensure strong foundations for every child.
• Books are central to our curriculum—they inspire, challenge and connect our learning.

🔤 Early Reading & Phonics

• We teach early reading through a systematic phonics programme (Little Wandle)
• Children read books that match the sounds they have been taught, building accuracy and confidence.
• Daily story time immerses children in rich language well beyond their independent reading level.

Click here to view our phonics page

Goal: Every child leaves KS1 as a fluent, confident reader.

📖 Whole-Class Reading

• All children share high‑quality texts together, regardless of age or ability.
• Teachers model expressive reading and teach vocabulary, comprehension and inference.
• Shared reading builds confidence, understanding and a love of literature.

📚 Independent Reading

• Children read regularly in school and at home.
• We offer a wide choice of fiction, non-fiction, poetry and topic-linked books.
• Pupils develop stamina, independence and personal reading preferences.

🎧 Being Read To

• Story time happens every day in every class.
• Children enjoy rich language, new ideas and the simple pleasure of listening to a great book.
• Being read to strengthens imagination, understanding and future writing skills.

❤️ Our Commitment

We are dedicated to nurturing lifelong readers who:
✨ feel confident and joyful with books
✨ can read for both learning and pleasure
✨ develop curiosity, empathy and imagination through stories

Writing

✍️ Writing at Cornerstones

At Cornerstones, we believe every child is a writer. Through inspiring texts and creative learning experiences, we help children find their voice, develop confidence, and enjoy expressing themselves with clarity and purpose.

🌟 Our Writing Vision

• Writing is a life skill that empowers children to communicate, imagine and influence.
• High‑quality books inspire every writing unit, giving children rich language and strong models of real writers.
• Purposeful writing tasks ensure children understand why they are writing and who they are writing for.

✏️ Early Writing

• Children are encouraged to see themselves as writers from their first mark‑making experiences.
• Oral language, phonics and early handwriting (through the scheme letter join) are taught explicitly to build strong foundations.
• Storytelling, sentence rehearsal and vocabulary play help young learners build their early composition skills.

Goal: All children feel confident and proud to call themselves writers.

📚 Writing Through Texts

• Each writing sequence is inspired by a carefully chosen book.
• Texts provide models of vocabulary, structure and authorial style.
• Writing tasks link closely to class topics so they feel meaningful and relevant.

🧠 Developing Skills & Stamina

Across the school, children learn to:

• write for a wide range of purposes and audiences
• apply accurate spelling, punctuation and grammar
• build stamina to write at length
• plan, improve, edit and redraft their work

Spelling is taught daily through a structured programme, with additional support (e.g. Lexia) for pupils with SEND or specific learning needs.

📘 Grammar in Context

We teach grammar within real texts and writing tasks so children understand how it shapes meaning. Technical terminology is introduced naturally and used purposefully within writing.