Reading
At St Patrick’s we believe that all children should be encouraged to read widely across both fiction and non-fiction to establish an appreciation and love of reading and to gain knowledge across the curriculum. We understand that reading widely and often will enhance their love, enjoyment and ultimately their attainment. Please also see our phonics page Phonics at St Patrick’s
Children will be taught to:
- Read aloud fluently and with expression
- Read for meaning
- Develop the skills required for the critical reading of texts
- Read a wide range of fiction, poetry and non-fiction materials
- Use a range of strategies for reading including:
- Phonic (sounding the letters and blending them together. Visual (whole word recognition and analogy with known words)
- Contextual (use of picture and background knowledge)
- Grammatical (which words make sense)
At St Patrick’s, reading books are graded by difficulty into different colours known as Book Bands. By colour banding our books, we have been able to put a wider variety of different scheme books and authors in one level, providing children with greater choice of text and genre. Books included in the scheme are a variety of well-known authors matching the correct book band level. Our philosophy is real books, real authors. Reading aims to promote reading confidence through gradual progression, to provide children with the tools they need to become successful readers. It does this through the use of natural language structures and rhythms of speech, the gentle introduction of new words, which are then subsequently reinforced, clear story structure, accessible story content, where meaning is the key and a close match between the text and the illustrations.
We aim to ensure that the children progress through the levels but it is extremely important that they are able to read for meaning, understanding & have read a wide variety of books at each level.
Our teaching of reading is also supported by Steps to Read
Reading Curriculum Progression
Reading Websites to support Parents and Carers – please click links
Reading with your child aged 3-4
Reading with your child aged 4-6
Top tips for reading with your child