At Middlefield Primary Academy we are passionate about reading. All of our work in English is based on High Quality Texts. This enables children to gain an in-depth understanding of the text and inspires their writing across a range of genres. It also gives teachers the opportunity to raise awareness of authors and stories that children might not necessarily choose to read for themselves, thus broadening their reading horizons.

We recognise that new books are being written all the time and so we are committed to investing in reading books on a regular basis, including phonics books to assist children in EYFS and Year 1 with their phonic understanding, engaging bookband books for KS1 to take home and enjoy and books for our Accelerated Reader library, named The Library of Wonders by the children,  which is accessed by our KS2 pupils. Staff are often on hand to guide readers to choose books that will challenge, entertain and allow children to become emotionally invested in them. Our Millionaire Readers (children who have read 1 million words in an academic year) can also be relied upon to recommend great books. Conversations can often be heard in the Library of Wonders regarding recommendations - "If you like this, you'll also like ..."

KS1 also have access to The Box of Wonders, based on the success of The Library of Wonders. Quality books of all types have been donated to school by our families when they have outgrown them and collated as a lending collection with the emphasis firmly placed on reading for pleasure.

To build excitement around books, we always make an event of new books being added to the shelves! Classes are welcomed into the Library of Wonders and introduced to the new titles, many of which have been signed out by the end of the day!

The power of an adult role model cannot be underestimated and here at Middlefield, staff can also often be heard talking about books, both books they read for pleasure and books they share with their class. Reading for pleasure is firmly on the timetable of every teacher and these moments are some of the quietest of the day as children become gripped by the events and characters being brought to life.

Reading is, arguably, the most important skill we teach in school but our aim is to encourage enthusiastic readers. Author George RR Martin once said "Readers live a thousand lives, those who aren't readers live just one." We would like children at Middlefield to be lifelong readers,  living a thousand lives!

And we have data to prove what we are doing is working! In KS2 last year, children read a total of over 72 million words, considerably up from 48 million the previous year. This included 20 millionaires, 30 half millionaires. An additional result of these increases was an increase in comprehension, measured by quiz success rates, which reached an 80% average for the whole year for the first time.