Our reading curriculum is designed so that each child becomes a confident reader with the necessary skills to tackle any text. For this to happen we believe we must blend the two following strands.

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Strand 1: Skills and Fluency

We begin by developing children’s reading skills through a systematic approach to synthetic phonics. The scheme we use is Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised. Children are taught through a combination of whole class phonic lessons and group practice reading sessions.

There are three reading sessions a week, the children work with an adult in a group.  The focus is on applying phonics knowledge and not guessing words or trying to deduce from picture clues. Through repetition the children build fluency and confidence. Each week the books are pitched at 90% fluency which means children should only need to decode 1 word in 10.

Once the children complete the Little Wandle scheme in Year 2 they will have a secure foundation of reading skills on which to build. Practice reading sessions continue with a focus on further developing fluency and comprehension skills.

In KS2 Guided Reading is introduced. The texts studied by each group are chosen to help develop stamina, vocabulary and comprehension skills. In addition, books are selected to ensure children are introduced to a diverse range of authors and genre, with supplementary texts used to enrich their understanding.

In addition, children continue to have an individual book, working through the colour bands until they become a free reader. This is normally by the end of Year 4.

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Strand 2: Reading for Pleasure

We want all children, irrespective of their reading ability, to love and enjoy books and hopefully to become a lifelong reader. We have well stocked libraries and exciting book corners in classrooms, all ready for children to explore.

In Reception and Key Stage 1, in addition to the Little Wandle practice books, the children choose extra books to share and enjoy with you at home. To begin with these books are not intended for the children to read independently and the focus is on sharing a book and enjoying time together.

In Key Stage 2, in addition to the colour banded practice books if required, children can choose reading for pleasure books from either the school’s collection or elsewhere.

Our curriculum includes dedicated browsing times and extended reading sessions to develop stamina.

Another way we promote reading for pleasure is by adults reading to children, meaning many children get the opportunity to enjoy text at a higher level than they could access independently. We have developed a recommended list for each year group to support this. This ensures our children continue to experience a diverse range of high-quality text.