Reading is the bedrock of our learning at St Stephen's. Every member of staff is passionate about getting our children to read with fluency and interest. It is imperative we focus as closely as possible on this must-have skill to ensure our children access our curriculum fully and achieve their potential. We have a myriad of strategies to embed reading - one such is our twenty-minute-a-day, Guided Reading sessions. Deputy Headteacher, Jess Morrison, explains, "Our class teachers identify reading targets for individual children to work and develop their reading skills. This is usually done in groups across the class. Each week, every child will have time to work on the target with their teacher in a group. They will prepare and practice the new skill on the other days, via a range of activities, including comprehension, vocabulary enhancing sessions and a chance to free read a book that covers their current topic. All these sessions complement each other and hone our children's skills, with targeted work."

An extensive vocabulary will not only aid reading skills but enrich our children's writing. "At St Stephen's, we also recognise the importance of a wide vocabulary to access reading fluently, so we spend some of our guided reading time developing our vocabulary, also targeted by the teacher. This is such an important part of the week for our budding readers and many report it as their favourite session of the day!" says Mrs Morrison.