Reading

Reading is given a high status at St. Paul’s, and the children are eager to take part in their reading lessons, and transfer this passion, and their skills across the curriculum. We aim to instil a love of reading and books.

Each child is able to visit our inspirational reading room and in class book areas. All children have a reading diary and book, which are taken home each day. To see how our reading books are banded click here.

At St. Paul’s we have a daily story time, where teachers read books to the children from our reading spine, promoting the love of reading to the children. To see our reading spine click here.

In EYFS and Year 1 children are encouraged to read, and are read to daily. They are able to practice their letter formation and are taught to take pride in their writing from an early age. Our pupils learn phonics through 'Little Wandle’, taking part in a range of fun activities- such as games, hands on learning and whiteboard work. Children also take part in shared reading activities with their class teacher. For our information on how phonics is taught click here.

From Years 2-6 Guided reading is taught four times per week using high quality and engaging texts to promote a love of reading. Children focus on fluency, vocabulary, inference, retrieval, prediction and sequencing in these sessions. To see how the teaching of reading is sequenced at St. Paul’s please click here. To see the types of questions we ask and answer during Guided Reading sessions please click here.

Our primary aims are:

-To develop phonetic skills which lead to blending and reading fluently.

-To promote confidence and positive attitudes to reading.

-To promote and encourage good home/school links using a wide range of literature.

-To develop children’s reading for pleasure through the sharing of a class novel.

-To equip children with critical tools so they are able to analyse what they read.

-To monitor each child’s progress through the use of a range of assessment

strategies including informal assessments and formal testing as appropriate.

-To support all groups of learners in maximising their reading potential.