In EYFS, reading is the priority. In Nursery, children develop a love of books and reading through high quality texts (taken from the Pie Corbett reading spine) being read to them on a daily basis. These books are continually repeated to ensure children internalise the structure allowing them to become familiar with the building blocks of stories and of reading in general. In Reception, children get off to a quick start using the Sounds Write phonics programme delivered by highly trained staff. Alongside this, books are well matched to the phonics they have learnt. All this enables the children to quickly build up the fluency and confidence of their reading. Any child who is not progressing is identified early and extra reading provision is provided for them.
The focus of reading in Years 1 and 2 is to ensure that children can decode words accurately and develop a good standard of fluency. This is judged at 90 words per minute as detailed in the Year 2 assessment framework. The Sounds Write phonics programme is the principle method of achieving this alongside small guided reading groups.
Once children have been assessed at being at the required fluency level then they will take part in whole class guided reading sessions. This consists of a deep interrogation of the whole class text over a long period, which ensures that children gain a thorough understanding of the text as a whole.
The progression and sequence of the texts are outlined in the curriculum map and have been carefully planned and sequenced to ensure progression both within the year and across year groups.
Non-fiction is taught through the Talk4writing core non-fiction texts, which have been developed to ensure progression through the year groups. Alongside this, the cross-curricular non-fiction shared reading, which incorporates the core subject vocabulary, is an integral part of every foundation subject lesson.
All children in Key Stage 2 follow the Reading Plus programme which has a proven track record at increasing the children’s overall reading fluency.