Whole Class Guided Reading

At St Mary's we value reading comprehension as a crucial life skill. Children are taught reading as a whole class, in the same way they are all taught together for maths and English. These reading lessons are taught daily from between 20-30 minutes and focus on a text that is chosen to be challenging but accessible, with support from the teacher. We use high quality texts pitched appropriately for each year group together with ‘Fred’s Teaching’ slides to ensure we are covering all the KS2 reading domains.

Reading Fluency

In addition to the daily whole-class reading sessions, we believe that to support children who are still learning to decode, it is imperative that they practise with fully decodable books (Red Squirrel Phonics) that are matched to their secure phonic knowledge. When children read these types of books, they can use what they have learned to sound out the words. This practice helps children to use phonics as a way to read new words. It teaches them not to guess what a word is, which can lead to mistakes. Studies and experience show that this method helps nearly all children learn to read well.

Reading to an adult

For children who are still learning to decode or those less confident or those that are not reading at home, time is set aside for them to read to an adult. This may be a teacher, teaching assistant or parent helper, depending on the specific need.

Reading Fluency intervention groups

In October 2018, we took part in the reading fluency project together with HertsforLearning. We found this to be an excellent way to support children who were finding different aspect of reading challenging. It supports children with the pace at which they read, their prosody and expression, understanding and ultimately enjoyment of reading. Having been piloted in year 6, this has now been rolled out to all year groups.

Reading for Pleasure

Library reading for pleasure time

Each class has a weekly library slot, where children are shown how to use a library; to choose books and are read to and introduced to different text types and encouraged to try new titles.

Class book

Every class chooses a book as their class reader book. This is read to the children by the teacher and is purely for enjoyment (no comprehension questions to complete!). The teacher may read to them at the end of the day, in library time or if there is a gap in the day.

Paired reading

At different times of the year children are encouraged to read with a partner, for example from a different year group. We have found that older children reading to and with younger children has many benefits for both

Independent reading time

Children read independently, during reading time every day. This is usually their own reading book, but can also be newspapers, non-fiction books or other texts of their choosing. We ensure time is given for children to discuss what they are reading with each other and recommend what they are enjoying. Class teachers encourage children to read for pleasure, while also suggesting different books they may enjoy to read.

Useful websites to support with reading for enjoyment: