Books are an integral part of everyday life at St Joseph's and our whole curriculum is underpinned by quality texts. Children are read to every day in school through our story times. In key stage 1, the children read independently every day, either reading their decodable reading book aligned with Sounds Write or through daily supported reading, which develops not only children's fluency with reading, but their comprehension as well.

Approaches to Reading

Intent

For pupils to succeed in education, reading has got to be a priority. Pupils’ reading ability and knowledge acquisition are of great importance, with the associated costs to the lives of individuals and wider society being enormous (World Literacy Foundation, 2015). A recent review of research (Castles, Rastle and Nation, 2018) synthesised over 300 studies to highlight best practice: a phonics-based approach to help young children crack the ‘alphabetic code’: Immersion in test to develop word-recognition and the influence of knowledge, processing and cognition on wider comprehension.

In taking these aspects into consideration, our aim is for all pupils – irrespective of their needs, abilities or background – to learn to read fluently and with understanding. We aim to meet, and where possible exceed, the expectations laid out in the Early Learning Goals and KS1 programme of study, with pupils’ progression appropriately across school. Once children can decode text effectively, we aim to build word recognition and develop comprehension skills in order to produce secure, confident, independent readers who enjoy and understand the benefits of reading.

How to support reading at home

Reading with your child at home is a key. The more your child can practice their reading skills and see that reading is valued at home, the more they will develop their confidence and a true love of reading. The OU have come up with guides and videos to support parents with this, which you will find attached below, alongside suggested books to be read with different age groups, alongside QR codes which link to online versions of the books.

Find out more about our reading curriculum below!