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Reading

Please click on the reading letters below with all the information about reading this year in our school:

Reading in Year R 

Reading in Year 1

Reading in Year 2 

In our school reading has a high profile and there are daily reading opportunities for the children to develop their curiosity and love for reading. “I do believe something very magical can happen when you read a good book,” J.K. Rowling. In our Ofsted report it stated ‘Reading is a vital part of our school and the  curriculum captures pupils’ interest and creates an appetite for reading’.

How do we promote a love for reading?

The love of reading is promoted in a variety of ways:

  • Whole school reading weeks (these are usually themed, last year the focus was on bedtime stories and all the children came to school in their pyjamas. Every year, the teachers put on a pantomime with characters from their favourite books)
  • Class library sessions
  • Reading buddies (this is proven to increase engagement for reading)
  • Author focus for each half term (this is communicated with parents each half term to encourage children to visit their local library’s to find books written by popular children's authors)
  • Classroom reading areas (children select books from our school library so they are regularly rotated and children gain ownership over the books in their classroom)
  • Story boxes in our daily story times (texts are carefully selected to expose children to rich vocabulary and a love of early literature)
  • Story telling chairs to promote children to tell their own stories
  • Philosophy for children is often driven by a book (this is where children discuss the ‘big ideas’ in books and debate topical issues about the world)
How often do our children read?

Our children read every day. Children read daily in phonics sessions and during our quiet ERIC time  'Everybody Reading in Class'. Children read in small groups at least three times a week in reading practice sessions in Year R and 1 and weekly in whole class reading sessions in Year 2. All classes enjoy story time each day, where they engage with their teachers reading aloud. Throughout the half term, there will also be times when children read 1:1 with an adult. Teachers will communicate a more detailed target each half-term in your child's reading diary where they will comment on their progress and set targets to help them progress. 

How do we teach reading comprehension?

The children are introduced to characters which represent the reading domains: predicting, inferring, retrieving, vocabulary, sequencing and summarising information. These skills will be taught in reading sessions and children will have the opportunity to practise these skills in guided reading sessions and when reading independently.

Please see the comprehension sheet below to find out more information about the reading domains and how we use the different symbols:

Reading comprehension dogs 

How do we challenge our more able readers?

More advanced readers will be expected to draw on their knowledge of a range of books to discuss links between different authors. These children have opportunities to make choices about their reading material and to discuss personal preferences. They will progress to chapter books by the end of Key Stage 1.

How do we support our less able readers?

Children who find reading trickier, are carefully tracked by class teachers and our school leadership team. They may be invited to attend a breakfast reading club to help them to catch up (last year all children who attended the club progressed 2 colours in 5 weeks).  Parents are informed of concerns quickly and supported with tips to help at home. Intervention is put into place quickly if children fall behind. This may be an additional read with the teaching assistant/ teacher or an intervention may be put into place depending on the child’s need. This may include precision teaching of specific words/ sounds, paired reading or supporting with comprehension text through language support. If these interventions are not supporting the child, we use ‘Bearing Away’ which is a great programme to help children blend. We have had great success with this with many children over the years.  In our Ofsted report it was found 'staff spot any children who start to slip behind and help them to catch up quickly'. This year, this will be further strengthened by our targetted keep up support through our Little Wandle implementation. 

How to support your child at home with their reading

To support your child's reading at home, please read regularly with your child. Your child will receive their reading book on a Friday for the week. Please sign the reading diary each time you read. If your child reads at least 3 times, they will receive a point for their class and the class with the most points will be able to vote on a new book for their class book corner. PLEASE ENSURE THEIR READING DIARY AND BOOK BAG ARE ALWAYS IN THEIR BOOK BAG IN SCHOOL. BOOKS MUST BE RETURNED EVERY THURSDAY. Please read this book several times throughout the week to build fluency and confidence and ask them questions to check their understanding (see the reading comprehension above for guidance on types of questions). Reading with you at home should be an opportunity for them to show off what they have learnt in school. If your child would like an additional book, you will have access to Rising Stars. This is an online platform of books which links to our reading phases in school. 

Everybody Read!

Reading Phases

In Year R, our children will begin by reading wordless books. We recommend discussing what is happening in the story and how they think the characters are feeling, building up their comprehension skills and love of reading. When teachers feel they are ready to blend, they will progress to decoding books. These start at Phase 2, Set 1. This is done on a 1: 1 basis based on the child’s confidence, comprehension and sound recognition. Throughout the year, the children will be assessed at regular periods, they will then be carefully matched to the correct phase of books to ensure they are reading fully decodable books, matched to their phonics progression. Remember children progress at different times and rates so please try not to compare your child against their peers. By the end of year R an expected child should reach Phase 3, in Year 1 an expected child should reach the end of Phase 5 and in Year 2 an expected child should reach gold/white in our reading colour sequence.

Please see the reading colour sequence sheet to show the progression:

Reading Phase progression 

Please also see more specific targets you can work on with your child as they progress through the colours:

Phase and colour sequence targets 

Other resources to help

What books could I read with my child?

Please find below suggested book lists for each year group. If your child reads a good book we would love to hear about it! You may want to tick off the books you read. How many can you find in your library? How many are on the Internet as story books?

Year R

Year 1 

Year 2 

How can I help my child to read tricky words (words that cannot be decoded phonically)?

There are lots of fun ways to help your children to read and spell the tricky words and common exception words. You might want to try different ways to see what they enjoy doing at home. The 'trick' is to find a way to learn the part of the word that makes it tricky.

Sight Word activities