Our vision is that children will develop a lifelong love for reading and an appreciation of a range of books. We aim for our pupils to become independent and reflective readers who can read fluently and for meaning.

Reading is essential to attainment and success across all subjects. As a school, we aim to:

• develop an interest in and a love of books, encouraging children to become attentive listeners and independent and reflective readers


• promote and encourage a lifelong love of reading


• equip children with a range of reading strategies and skills in order to identify and recognise words and to develop accuracy and fluency


• develop appreciation and understanding of and response to texts


• enable children to utilise reading skills in order to read a range of texts for a variety of purposes and to access information and learn in other subject areas


• provide a consistent approach to assessment to ensure that children are provided with reading experiences and opportunities at an appropriate level

We are committed to help children find enjoyment in reading and to appreciate how books can offer a window to other worlds, meet amazing characters and learn about the world they live in. We choose books with important and diverse themes that help to build on their cultural capital and knowledge.

The National Curriculum divides reading skills into two dimensions:

• Word reading/ decoding


• Comprehension

We recognise that both these elements are essential to success and we support the acquisition of both sets of skills through various methods. We acknowledge that these areas are clearly linked to the other aspects of English learning: speaking and listening, writing, grammar and vocabulary. We also understand that reading is a developmental process and part of life-long learning and we encourage and praise children at every stage of it.

In order to develop fluent, confident readers, we:

• follow a systematic approach to the teaching of phonics via Little Wandle (Letters and Sounds Revised) programme 


• discretely teach comprehension strategies through quality whole class direct teaching and reading practise work


• actively promote and foster a love of reading


• further develop children’s vocabulary by “magpie-ing” during English lessons, other subjects and class reader sessions


•  make the link explicit between reading and writing through the use of quality texts

Implementation: Early Reading

In Nursery, we teach the foundations of phonics. We provide a balance of child-led and adult-led experiences for all children that meet the curriculum expectations for ‘Communication and language’ and ‘Literacy’. These include: sharing high-quality stories and poems, learning a range of nursery rhymes and action rhymes, activities that develop focused listening and attention, including oral blending and attention to high-quality language. We ensure Nursery children are well prepared to begin learning grapheme-phoneme correspondences (GPCs) and blending in Reception.

In order to develop fluent, confident readers, we start teaching phonics in Reception and throughout Year 1.

We follow the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised progression, which ensures children build on their growing knowledge of the alphabetic code, mastering phonics to read and spell as they move through school. 

We also model the application of the alphabetic code through phonics in shared reading and writing, both inside and outside of the phonics lesson and across the curriculum. We have a strong focus on language development for our children because we know that speaking and listening are crucial skills for reading and writing in all subjects. Early phonics interventions for those children needing additional support are put in place throughout Reception and Year 1, with the aim of children ‘keeping up’ rather than ‘catching up’.

We immerse our children in lots of different phonic activities throughout the day. We make phonics an intrinsic part of our "Five a Day" commitment to reading 5 stories a day to our children in EYFS and Year 1, deliberately choosing books about sounds, rhyme or alliteration. Our home reading scheme is a mixture of high quality and phonetically-decodable books. 

The phonics screening check in Year 1 identifies those children with specific learning difficulties who need extra help and support to improve their decoding skills in Year 2. Phonics interventions also occur in Y2 – Y6 for those children who still need phonics support.

For further information, please refer to our Phonics webpage for more detailed information on the progression in phonics through Reception and Year 1, detailing the graphemes that will be taught in each term.

Implementation: Reading Practice In Reception and Year 1, all children participate in reading practice sessions three times per week. These are structured to develop decoding, prosody and comprehension. Books are matched to the phonics being taught. Children who need additional support in Y2 – Y6 also take part in small group reading practice sessions at least twice a week.

Implementation: Whole Class Reading From Y3 upwards, comprehension strategies are taught through whole class reading sessions (Year 2 may begin whole class reading in the Spring Term, dependent on the needs of the class). 

Within these sessions, there is a focus on the skills and strategies our children need to become competent readers;developing both fluency and understanding within each lesson. 'In the moment of reading' strategies (for example; prediction, inference, background knowledge and visualisation) are taught alongside key skills, with vocabulary sessions preceding the introduction of new texts.  At Beech Street, we choose a mix of fiction, non-fiction and poetry texts, as well as the class daily read text to teach whole class reading. 

Through summative and formative assessment, key skills may be identified as a priority for teaching and therefore given a higher percentage of teaching time.

Quality texts and extracts are chosen to challenge the children and these include fiction, non-fiction, poetry, films and songs.

Reading fluency is also taught as part of Reading Practice and Whole Class Reading Lessons using echo, choral, paired, repeated and theatrical reading. These skills are also woven into other areas of the curriculum to support children when reading beyond explicitly taught reading lessons. 

Assessment and monitoring are an integral part of the teaching and learning process and is used to:

• provide the children with clear and regular feedback


• assist the children and teachers in planning their next steps


• evaluate the effectiveness of teaching

Teachers use daily formative assessment strategies to ensure that all teaching is accurate and challenging. Ongoing teacher assessment of reading informs individual and group/class reading skills for development. In addition to this, summative assessments also take place.

In Year 1, children sit a phonics assessment to identify which phonic patterns they can recognise and read. The results of this test are reported in the child's end of year report. 

In Year 2, children will have their first SATs assessment. The tests in Year 2 consist of a set of assessments conducted by the class teacher along with two reading papers.

In Years 3, 4 and 5, children are formally assessed each term using Testbase assessments. These help teachers assess children’s progress and allow for the correct interventions to take place.

In Year 6, children sit further Nationally reported SATs tests. These SATs tests are more formal and consist of timed papers. The papers are sent away for marking and the results are known before the children leave primary school in July.  The results are reported in the child’s end of term report.

Further information regarding National Curriculum Tests can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/key-stage-1-and-2-national-curriculum-tests-information-for-parents?utm_source=bcb690dd-4c21-4f46-b3f9-1a24e5eb100b&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=govuk-notifications&utm_content=dail

Children from Year 2 have reading journals, where a range of evidence is collected that can be used to support an accurate assessment of their individual reading ability. To assess the children’s reading age, the Salford Sentence Reading Test is used in Autumn 1 and Summer 1 terms. This is used primarily for children with SEND needs and/or those children who have been identified as not making expected progress. Pupil voice shows staff which children are engaged in the reading process and these are conducted by the Reading Leads and members of SLT where appropriate. Reading Leads and SLT also monitor children’s progress in reading and ensure appropriate interventions are taking place for any pupils making less than expected progress. The link Governor for reading is updated annually on what is working well and areas for development. Areas for development are identified in an action plan written by the Reading Leads and these are linked to the school development plan.