St Monica's Reading Approach

Early Years and Key Stage 1

Carefully chosen core texts are at the heart of the curriculum delivery. Every day, firm foundations are laid by adults reading quality texts to the children and engaging the children in purposeful discussion, developing language skills, comprehension and a love of books. From their earliest days in nursery, our pupils are introduced to phonics through carefully planned and enjoyable activities. Emphasis is placed on developing the early skills of general sound discrimination, rhythm and rhyme, alliteration, voice sounds, oral blending and segmenting. As the children enter reception, they are introduced to the alphabetic code through the use of a systematic synthetic phonic programme called Read Write Inc. This progressive programme is used throughout Key Stage 1 as a vehicle to equip the children with the expected phonic knowledge and skills necessary to become active readers and writers. In addition, reading materials and books are matched to each child’s phonological stage of development. When a child has achieved the expected standard in phonological development, usually by the end of Year 1, key teaching emphasis is placed on reading comprehension and fluency. In conjunction with a select range of resources, the main reading scheme used in Year 2 is ORT. An exposure to Pathways to Read books starts in Year 2 as a transition tool. For those children who do not reach the expected standard by the end of Year 1, there is a continued emphasis on developing their phonological knowledge until the standard is reached.

Key Stage 2

We follow a Mastery approach to English through the programme Pathways to Read. Units of work are delivered using high quality texts and children in all year groups are given varied opportunities for reading. Skills are built up through repetition within the units, and children apply these skills in the reading activities provided. Many opportunities for widening children’s vocabulary are given through the Pathways to Read approach and this builds on the extensive work we do in school to provide our children with a rich and varied vocabulary. In conjunction with a select range of resources, the main reading scheme used in Key Stage 2 is TreeTops. TreeTops supports a rigorous approach to the teaching of reading; the books are engaging and relevant to young learners and encourage confident and enjoyable reading experiences. It provides a wide selection of well-levelled and engaging books, enabling children to read widely and develop fluency and comprehension. In addition to this, any children still requiring phonics interventions receive exciting and engaging texts from our Read Write Inc Phonics and Fresh Start scheme, these are used to engage children and ignite a love of reading. Reading for pleasure and access to high-quality texts underpins the Key Stage 2 reading approach.