Reading

Reading at St Joseph's

Early reading is vital for children to become confident writers. At St Joseph’s, we teach Phonics every day in EYFS and KS1. We use Essential Letters and Sounds to teach our children Phonics across EYFS, KS1 and beyond. Through using Essential Letters and Sounds, the children learn the sound, an action and the formation of each letter. As the children become more confident, we teach them how to put sounds together to read and write words. The children also practise high frequency words such as ‘we’ and ‘was’ at both home and school.

In Key Stage 1, the children continue to follow the Essential Letters and Sounds scheme, enhanced with further materials, and the children have weekly spellings. The children use card games, interactive whiteboard materials, flash cards and white boards to support their learning.

We have developed our own reading scheme, in line with the sounds being taught through Essential Letters and Sounds. Books are banded according to their level of decoding and comprehension. The books that are given to the children match the sounds that they have learned that week. Children move up through the book levels until they have become free readers. They are then able to select and change their own reading books from the Junior Library and bring in a range from home. It is our aim that by the start of Year 4, the majority of children are free readers.

For further information on the reading levels and supporting your child with their reading, please refer to our 'Reading Scheme' document.

For recommended reading lists for each year group, please see the drop-down menu under 'Reading'.