At St Albert’s, we are passionate about fostering a life-long love of reading within our children. As a result, we approach the teaching of reading from all angles, encouraging children to read both for pleasure and in order to gain information. Reading is promoted across the curriculum and occurs all of the time.
Pupils are taught the skills and strategies to read and comprehend a variety of texts including fiction, non-fiction, poetry and plays. They are encouraged to read with confidence, fluency and understanding. Integral to everything we do, is ensuring that we provide an environment where children see the true value of reading and develop a love for the written word.
Early Reading and Phonics
The teaching of reading at St Albert’s begins in our EYFS, with our children sharing books with adults and listening to many stories and nursey rhymes each day. Monster Phonics is the scheme we use for the daily, focused teaching of systematic synthetic phonics in Reception and Key Stage 1. This engaging, multi-sensory approach helps children to confidently recognise sounds and develop strong early reading skills.
Monster Phonics Overview
Phonics Overview – St. Albert’s
What Does Reading Look Like at Home?
Monster Phonics reading books are sent home, ensuring that children practise with texts containing the sounds they have already learned in class. This helps to build fluency, confidence, and a real sense of success as young readers.
Pupils in KS2 work through colour-banded books which are arranged in progressive steps to ensure sustained progress. Once confident, children become ‘Free Readers’ and select from a wide-range of novels.
Our school provides each child with a home reading diary to record their reading and progress. We expect our pupils to read at least 5 times a week at home and actively encourage parental involvement to support their children. Ideal reading times are 10 minutes for KS1 and 20 minutes for KS2 pupils every day.
Guided Reading
In EYFS-Year 2, children have small group guided reading lessons using Monster Phonics Books, which transitions into Autumn term for Year 3 before gradually shifting to a whole-Class Guided Reading approach. Guided reading sessions are taught 3 times a week in Key Stage 1, and 4 times a week in Key Stage 2 for 30mins. Whole-Class Guided Reading sessions in Key Stage 2 are linked to class novels as well as texts linked to wider curriculum themes.
Texts used have been carefully mapped out to link, where possible, to the children’s curriculum knowledge to enable opportunities to revisit prior learning or to address key themes throughout the year: Remembrance, Black History Month, Mental Health, Equality and Diversity and Refugee Week.
Guided Reading sessions focus on the skills of comprehension, first through unpicking vocabulary, then moving on to unlocking the meaning of whole texts and critical appreciation. Teachers use a range of strategies such as VIPERS and the 5 innovative techniques from the ‘Are you really a reader?’ toolkit to support children’s understanding of what they are reading.
Read to Succeed at St Albert’s
This year, we have introduced the Read to Succeed scheme in Key Stage 2 to improve reading standards at home, instil excellent reading habits, and help our children recognise the true value and joy of reading. This scheme encourages all of our children to become ‘Star Readers’ and celebrates progress along the way. Class teachers regularly check reading diaries to see how many times they’ve been signed. When children reach each milestone, they earn a special reward- and can then start working towards the next one!
Rewards:
⭐ 35 reads – Bronze Star Pin Badge
⭐ 70 reads (another 35) – Reading Certificate
⭐ 120 reads (another 50) – Silver Star Pin Badge
⭐ 170 reads (another 50) – Gold Star Pin Badge and a special Read to Succeed Afternoon Tea with Mrs McEvoy or Mrs Riddick
Reading For Pleasure
Each year group has their own ‘Reading Chest’ of carefully chosen titles picked by the children themselves.
All classes also have a box of Reading Spine books, specific to each year group. These are a collection of popular texts which we want our children to know well.
Reading In English Lessons: ‘Read-It Week’
Our English sessions are split into a ‘Read-It Week’ and ‘Write-It Weeks’. During the ‘Read-It Week’, children become fully immersed in both the text and genre of writing that they are studying. Lots of exploration of the text takes place, with many opportunities for discussion, voicing opinions on key events and author choices, and practising inference and deduction skills.