Reading

At Woodston, we strive to foster a love of reading within every child. We ensure that all areas of our school environment actively encourage and support reading, from inviting book corners in each classroom to our impressive school libraries and reading displays. Reading is prioritised in school with regular reading sessions incorporated throughout the school day. This varies from independent reading opportunities, which provide children with the freedom to choose their text and read for pleasure, to read-aloud sessions with adults or whole-class reading lessons.

Early Reading and Phonics

We follow the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised phonics scheme to teach phonics and early reading in Reception and Key Stage One. We want all our children to be successful, fluent readers by the end of KS1, and we aim to achieve this through a combination of high-quality, daily phonics teaching and regular opportunities for developing reading skills. Click here to read more about Phonics and how we teach using the Little Wandle scheme.

Key Stage 2

As children move throughout KS2, we focus on increasing fluency and ensuring that children read with clear intonation, emphasis and accuracy as they read (which can also be known as prosody).

Children take part in daily whole class reading sessions in which they have the opportunity to learn new vocabulary, embed their phonic awareness, practise reading with fluency and prosody as well as develop their comprehension skills whilst reading a carefully chosen, high-quality text. Each lesson has a reading skill focus and supports children in deepening their understanding of the texts they read.

Reading at Home

All children will bring home a reading for pleasure book, which is a book that they have chosen to enjoy at home, perhaps based on an interest, or a text from a favourite author. As children choose this text independently, they may need support in reading it and may need to share it alongside an adult.

If your child is still accessing phonics for their reading, they will also bring home a phonically decodable book matched to their phonics ability. This is a text that they will be able to read independently.  

It is important that your child has the chance to read regularly at home as well as in school. This additional practise time provides them with the opportunity to practise the skills they have learnt in school. Just 10 minutes of reading each day can make such a positive difference to your child’s reading journey.