Our reading resources are taken from a wide variety of published schemes to aid progression in reading skills. Teaching in phonics follows the Sounds-Write scheme. 

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Phonics 

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At Our Lady’s, Phonics is taught daily from Reception to Year 2, however it may continue to be taught across school to ensure that all children receive a good understanding of phonics to support their reading. Children will learn different phonemes (sounds) and graphemes (letters), to enable them to segment and blend words for reading. 

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At Our Lady's, we follow the Sounds-Write scheme. The progression of this can be seen in the document named :

“Sounds-Write Timeline Diagram”.  

 

Our Phonics policy can be found in the Parental Documents & Policies section of our website. CLICK HERE to be redirected there.

 

Reading 

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EYFS  

We have a structured early learning reading programme. The teaching of early reading skills begins in Reception through daily story, rhyme and song time. A wide selection of early reading books are available from Reception and these are grouped into phonic ability. Children are taught during shared and guided group reading using structured and repetitive books, guided texts and short stories during the Summer term. Teachers and teaching assistants also read on an individual basis with children as necessary: how often and who is based on assessment of progress.  

 

KS1

In Key Stage 1, children follow a book banded system which is matched to their ability in Phonics. This enables them to read a variety of books suited for their ability. Once the children are competent with comprehension and fluent readers, they move on to Accelerated Reader where they are assessed and given a specific level of book suited to both reading and comprehension ability. This is assessed at regular intervals ensuring the children are reading books matched to their ability which also give them a comfortable amount of challenge. Teachers and teaching assistants continue to read on an individual basis with children as necessary. How often and who is based on assessment of progress. As we know the importance of all children reading well as soon as possible, we put a great emphasis on reading with an adult in Year 1, as often as possible, with the aim on securing this skill in the earliest school years. Daily Phonics sessions take place across Year 1 and 2 and then to ensure shared access to high level texts and discussion, whole-class reading takes place across the week based on the Michael Caine strands. Buddy reading’ takes place in pairs of Year 6 and Year 2 and Year 5 and Year 1 children to develop reading role models. 

 

 

KS2

Teachers and teaching assistants continue to monitor children’s reading progress through a combination of individual, group and shared reading as well as the Accelerated Reader scheme. To ensure shared access to high level texts and discussion, whole-class reading takes place at least three times a week across KS2 with a weekly comprehension test based on the Michael Caine strands. 

Opportunities for independent reading are provided to encourage children to develop reading stamina and reading for pleasure. Children and adults share their text choices and recommend books to others. All children in Key Stage 2 have the opportunity to change their reading book on completion of an AR quiz. Independent reading occurs daily and may be supported by a member of staff where children require additional help or support. When children have read their book, they will take a small, fun and interactive quiz to assess their understanding. A score will be logged and used as part of our continual assessment of your child’s progress in reading.  

 

 

To ensure all of our children become fluent readers with high levels of comprehension, we have created a school Reading Spine based on research by Pie Corbett and the Plagues of Reading by Doug Lemov.