At St Mary’s, we believe that reading is a life-long skill that opens up new worlds for children to discover throughout their lives.  Our students leave school able to confidently discuss, evaluate and enjoy a range of books and texts as well as being able to read for pleasure fluently.  We envelop our students in a rich range of authors and books to complement topics and themes in our Global Connected Curriculum.  Children are met with texts that both challenge and excite them to think deeply and reflect the incredible diversity of our modern world. 

How we teach reading

Reading is taught with a daily lesson focusing on reading strategies to develop the skills necessary to progress from early reading and Read Write Inc phonics in EYFS and KS1.  Children are able to discuss their understanding in Book Talk lessons, increase their understanding of texts through the main six reading skills: retrieval, inference, prediction, sequencing, explanation and exploring new vocabulary.  Skills are modelled and recurrent to support reading progression and understanding.  Through our reading assessments, children will receive a reading book matched to their ability to read at home.  Regular phonics interventions are taught to support children in KS2 who need further support.  To find out more about our approach to teaching phonics, click here. Alongside this, we place a high focus on fluency and the development of comprehension to ensure children are able to accurately decode quickly, develop expert prosody and confidence. 

As reading underpins the whole curriculum, children are expected to read at home regularly, aiming for five times per week to support their reading growth.