At St Peter and St Paul, we believe that reading is central to all learning as it has the power to shape minds, in and out of the classroom. It allows children to acquire knowledge and allows functional access to the wider world, but also supports the continued development of their mental health; through reading, pupils have a chance to develop culturally, emotionally, intellectually, socially and spiritually.

Reading Sessions

Alongside our phonics (early reading) teaching, the children also have dedicated reading sessions focusing on the other skills needed to become fluent, confident readers.

In Reception, reading skills are taught throughout daily story sessions, the stories around which their provision is based and in school group reading sessions, when appropriate. Reception have been working hard to think about the beginning, middle and end of stories. 

In our Key Stage One whole class reading sessions, we develop our comprehension skills by exploring vocabulary and patterns. We look at different text types and make links between the things we have read together and independently. We make predictions and give our opinions on different texts. 

Year 1: On Sudden Hill by Linda Sarah .

Year 1 will be using close analysis of the front and back cover to make predictions about the story.  They will be giving their opinions on the story with emphasis on giving reasons and using interesting sentence openers such as: 'I liked when... because...', I disliked the story because...'.  In coordination with their relationships unit in PSHE, Year 1 will be thinking about the relationship between the children in the book and how it makes them feel. 

Year 2: Into the Forest by Anthony Browne. 

Year 2 will be observing the front and back cover of the book, using the blurb and illustrations to predict what the story might be about using sentence openers such as: 'I predict...because...' They will use inferences to describe characters feelings and use the illustrations to give reasons for their answers. The children will then explore the main events in the story and identify the key events from the story. We will make links with other stories we have read in the past and discuss how these are similar. They will then finish the unit by giving their opinion of the book and writing a review. 

Our Reading Spine 

We strongly believe that all children should be exposed to and immersed in a wealth of high quality texts. In order to achieve this, and complement both our reading and writing curriculums, we use Pie Corbett's reading spine. We have also taken good measure to ensure that our reading spine, curriculum texts and the books found in our reading corners and library are rich, diverse and inclusive.

Decodable Reading Books 

Alongside our phonics (early reading) teaching, we use Dandelion and Sounds Write decodable texts to enable the children to apply their developing phonic knowledge and develop their reading fluency.
 

These books are specifically allocated based on current phonetic code knowledge and skills. They are used both in school during whole class reading activities and 1-1 reading sessions, and are also sent home to be read to an adult. 

Decodable Reading E-Books

Please find below some digital versions of some of our wonderful decodable reading books. Please use this to support alongside the decodable books sent home, or in case you are isolating and unable to access the books from school. 

You might find some you've read in school before or maybe some brand new stories. 

Reading for Pleasure 

Whilst our aim is for the children to be able to use their reading skills for effective communication and to support their daily life, we also strive for all our children to see the wonder and pleasure in reading. Reading for pleasure is a central part of our daily curriculum and the children look forward to story time each day.  

All classrooms have an inviting reading area for the children to use alongside their visits to our central library. The children very much enjoy having time to explore, read and discuss their choice of books with their friends. Each week, the children chose 'sharing' (non-phonetically decodable) books to take home and share with their family and friends.

We love hearing about all the wonderful things that everyone has been enjoying reading. Recently, we enjoyed a whole school 'Reading River' project in which we catalogued everything we enjoyed reading throughout our half term. It was great to see the wide variety of interests and reading hobbies we have at St Peter and St Paul. We were also delighted to see just how much our children value their independent reading skills as life tools and they enjoy being able to read labels and signs, instructions and menus on their own! 

We've since been creating class reading rivers to document all of the reading we are doing. The children enjoy spotting books they've read on each others' reading rivers and looking for book recommendations. 

Supporting reading at home

To support your child's reading at home, please: 

- support your child to read part of their decodable reading book at home every night, taking time to read sentences / pages for fluency and understanding

- ask lots of questions and discuss what is being read

- send in your child's reading book and reading record each day so we can read together at school and change books 

- share your child's chosen reading for pleasure book 

- read to your child to model reading skills and foster a love of reading. 

Please find below the slides from our most recent reading workshop. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact your child's class teacher. 

We've recorded some of our favourite Christmas stories for you. We hope you enjoy them - and don't forget some might help you with your Christmas reading challenge! ​​​​​​​