St John The Baptist Church of England Primary School
Loving Learning, Building Community, Growing in Faith
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Reading at St Johns
At St Johns we strive to instill a love of reading in every child. We believe that lifelong readers are lifelong learners and we know that reading is the key to a child's success across all areas of the curriculum. Children start their reading journey by learning phonics - the sounds that letters make.
We follow a systematic synthetic approach to phonics based on letters and sounds. Children are taught to read using the sounds that letters make as soon as they start school. All texts that the children read independently are explicitly matched to the sounds the children have learnt that week in EYFS and KS1.
Phonics is split into phases and is taught in the following year groups as well as to children who are new to English:
Reception | Phase One - Sound discrimination Phase Two - Single sounds Phase Three - Digraphs & Trigraphs Phase Four - Adjacent consonants |
Year One | Phase Five - Alternative Spellings |
Year Two | Phase Five - Alternative Pronunciations This then leads on to Spelling. |
Shared and guided reading
We also teach regular shared and guided reading lessons, where children practice reading books using the sounds that they have learnt. As well as decoding (word reading) we know that successful readers also need strong comprehension and wider reading skills. These skills are taught explicitly through shared reading lessons across the school. Children are then given the opportunity to apply these skills in regular guided reading sessions. We also ensure that children are read to several times a day, so that they experience a broad range of vocabulary and rich language.
Accelerated Reader
We use Accelerated Reader at St Johns in KS2 to manage and monitor children's independent reading and ensure they are reading books at the appropriate level. Children complete a Star Reader Assessment each half term which provides them with a ZPD score. This is used to match the children to a particular level of book. Once the children have finished their book, they take a quiz online. This allows teachers to assess the children and see if the books they are reading are accurately matched
Here is a list of the top 100 best books for children to read!
Here you can find a list of recommended books for each key stage!
These websites will also help you to practise reading at home with your child.
Alongside phonics, children are also taught to read using sight words. These are sent home regularly for your child to practise in order for them to be able to read and write fluently. Please see our sight word rockets below.
For more information on how we teach reading at St Johns, please see the following documents.
Don't forget to have a look at our Phonics and Reading curriculum pages!