At St Michael’s CE Primary School, we are committed to developing confident, fluent and enthusiastic readers.

Early reading is taught through Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised, a systematic synthetic phonics programme which provides children with the foundations needed for lifelong reading success.

Our reading curriculum is carefully sequenced from EYFS to Year 6 so pupils move progressively from:

• speaking and listening
• phonics and decoding
• reading fluency
• comprehension and discussion
• critical thinking
• reading for pleasure and wider curriculum learning.

Vocabulary development and reading fluency are prioritised throughout the curriculum to help pupils become confident and successful readers.

How Reading is Taught at St Michael’s

Reading is taught daily through a structured approach which develops decoding, fluency, comprehension and a love of reading.

Our approach includes:

• Systematic phonics teaching through Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised
• Daily reading practice
• Explicit vocabulary teaching
• Repeated reading and fluency practice
• Teacher modelling, echo and choral reading
• Discussion and comprehension activities
• High-quality texts across the curriculum
• Adaptive teaching and targeted support for pupils who need additional help.

Phonics and Early Reading

Children in Reception and Key Stage 1 take part in daily phonics lessons where they learn to:

• recognise sounds
• blend sounds to read words
• segment words for spelling
• read with increasing fluency and confidence.

Reading practice sessions help pupils develop decoding accuracy, fluency and prosody. Pupils who need additional support receive targeted Keep-up or Rapid Catch-up intervention to help them keep pace with their peers.

Reading

Pupils read a wide range of high-quality texts including stories, poetry, non-fiction and picture books.

Reading fluency is prioritised through:

• repeated reading
• teacher modelling
• echo and choral reading
• vocabulary discussion
• partner talk.

As pupils become more fluent readers, they develop deeper comprehension skills including:

• prediction
• inference
• retrieval
• reasoning
• discussion and evaluation.

Reading is embedded across the wider curriculum so pupils use reading to deepen knowledge in subjects such as history, geography, science and religious education.

Reading for Pleasure

Developing a lifelong love of reading is a key priority at St Michael’s.

Children enjoy:

• daily story time
• class reading areas
• library visits
• reading ambassadors
• author experiences
• reading celebrations and events.

We actively encourage families to read together at home and support the National Year of Reading initiative, helping pupils see reading as both valuable and enjoyable.

Impact

By the end of Year 6, pupils at St Michael’s are:

• fluent and confident readers
• able to read with accuracy, fluency and understanding
• confident speakers who can explain and discuss ideas clearly
• motivated to read widely and often
• able to use reading to support learning across the curriculum
• equipped with the literacy skills needed for secondary school and beyond.

Our Reading Journey

Our reading journey demonstrates how pupils move from:

• phonics and decoding
• reading fluency
• comprehension and discussion
• critical thinking
• reading for pleasure and wider curriculum learning.