At Ryton‑on‑Dunsmore, we believe that a child’s vocabulary has a profound impact on their knowledge and understanding across the entire curriculum. A rich and growing vocabulary enables children to comprehend what they read, access and master mathematical concepts, and make sense of enquiries in every subject. To achieve this, pupils must be able to read new words, understand their meanings and apply them confidently in different contexts.

All children are taught a range of strategies to help them work out the meaning of unfamiliar vocabulary encountered in their reading. These strategies are modelled consistently across the curriculum and include:

• identifying word parts such as prefixes, suffixes and root words
• reading around the word and ahead for contextual clues
• checking for capital letters to determine whether the word is a proper noun
• substituting the word with a possible synonym
• considering whether the word has multiple meanings depending on the context

Through this approach, we aim to develop confident, curious readers who can independently unlock the meaning of new vocabulary and apply it purposefully in their learning.