Early Years Foundation Stage

This is where the journey begins and the love for reading is ignited! Developing a love of reading in younger children requires a wide, language rich curriculum and classroom environments that immerse children in books and stories. In Reception, direct and focussed phonics is taught every day using Monster Phonics.  Children read from books with the sounds they know, while they are learning to read. Children take home reading books that match their phonic knowledge which allows reading to continue to thrive and develop. Typically, children in EYFS will have the pleasure of listening to a number of stories each day.  This gives our children great practise at sitting and listening and where appropriate having in-depth discussions using tier 2 and 3 vocabulary. Continuous Provision promotes reading and is an opportunity for children to talk and play in a language-rich environment.  

Key Stage One

In Key Stage One direct and focussed phonics lessons are taught every day using the Monster Phonics program. Children read from books with the sounds they know, while they are learning to read. Children take home reading books that match their phonic knowledge which allows reading to continue to thrive and develop. Teachers and teaching assistants provide extra practice for the children who make the slowest progress, giving them the best possible chance to catch-up. Children who have completed the phonics programme in Year 2 use Accelerated Reader for their home reading.  They complete termly star tests to ensure the books are correctly matched to their ability and complete regular quizzes which allows teachers to monitor their understanding and engagement.

Here children have further opportunity to build on their fluency, stamina for reading longer texts and comprehension skills.

Monster Phonics

Teachers and practitioners have clear expectations of pupils’ phonics progress. Following every lesson, the teacher identifies the children who have not ‘kept up’ and a same day intervention is delivered. This approach allows gaps in phonic knowledge to be addressed before the next phonics lesson. In addition to daily formative assessment for learning, summative assessments are completed for reading, spelling, Common Exception Words (CEW) and High Frequency Words (HFW) in line with the Monster Phonics assessment timetable.

In FS2 and Key Stage 1, children read Monster Phonics decodable books at school with an adult every week. Children are heard read either 1:1 or in a small group. Parents and children are encouraged to read the same book, either as an eBook or a physical reading book, at home. This approach allows children to apply the phonic skills taught in the phonic lessons when practising their reading. Teachers use Monster Phonics assessment and the Monster Phonics placement chart to match books to the children’s phonic knowledge, ensuring they are reading books with 90% accuracy. 

In addition to the Monster Phonics reading books children also choose a library book to share with an adult at home. The children select these books themselves.  The aim is to foster a love of books and experience pleasure from reading.

Automatic, fluent readers who have excellent comprehension and engagement is our ultimate goal by the end of KS1.

Key Stage Two

To develop a love of reading in our school, St Anne’s has implemented Accelerated Reader, a reading programme which closely monitors children’s reading performance, their progress and informs teachers of any targets or areas to focus on. This is child-led; children can choose the book they wish to read, depending on the ZPD level set from the STAR reading test. These tests are to be completed by every child in each half term and the first week of school in September.

Our children develop reading skills most effectively when they read appropriately challenging books – difficult enough to keep them engaged but not so difficult that they become frustrated. This is their ‘Zone of Proximal Development’ (ZPD)

AR gives children significantly greater choice in levelled books and quizzes than any comparable reading programme.  

Children in Key Stage 2 enjoy whole class reading using carefully selected texts appropriate to their age and ability.

This model allows the children to explore high quality, age-related novels which build upon their vocabulary knowledge and reading skills.  Our structured approach to the teaching of reading provides children with a robust and sequential system that builds on their prior knowledge as well as develop their accuracy, prosody, pace and comprehension. 

Each week, our reading lessons start by developing the children’s fluency and vocabulary. At St Anne’s, we understand the importance of closing the vocabulary gap as it plays a fundamental role in the reading process and contributes greatly to a reader’s comprehension.

Specific vocabulary from our class novel or text is chosen every week and the children are taught what the word means as well as synonyms, etymology, and morphology. In terms of fluency, speed reads and timed challenges are used as well as strategies such as ‘echo reading’ to develop pace, expression, and accuracy. Next, a particular objective is explored; prediction, inference, summarising, clarifying etc. and the children are taught how to use the novel to search for clues and use evidence from the books to justify their answers. Our week in reading, rounds off by focussing on comprehension where children learn how to skim and scan, in-order to retrieve information quickly and efficiently.