St Michael's CofE Primary School Living and Learning Together
Reading
Intent
We aim for every child to become a fluent, confident, and enthusiastic reader by the end of primary school. Reading is central to learning and helps children explore the world, develop empathy, and live out our Christian values.
Implementation
- Early Reading & Phonics: Daily phonics sessions using Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised, supported by matched reading books and regular assessments.
- Reading for Pleasure: Children take home books that match their phonics level and a separate book to enjoy freely.
- Catch-Up Support: Targeted interventions ensure all children keep up or catch up with phonics and fluency.
- Key Stage : Whole-class reading sessions build comprehension and vocabulary. Accelerated Reader supports home reading with personalised book choices and quizzes.
- Reading Culture: Class libraries, school-wide reading areas, and events like World Book Day and author visits promote a love of reading.
Impact
Children read fluently and confidently across genres, are well-prepared for secondary school, and show strong progress across all groups. Parents are actively involved in supporting reading at home.
"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you ll go."
Dr Seuss
Progression of Skills
Below, you will find the progression of skills for our reading curriculum at St Michael s. This is taken directly from the National Curriculum and ensures all children in our care are being taught the full programme of study. We teach these skills through engaging texts and embed them within our exciting topics, to make reading meaningful, interesting and fun.
Phonics and Early Reading Policy
Please refer to the below links for our Phonics and Early Reading Policy and the progression linked to our Phonics programme Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised . Please visit the main Reading page of our website for our whole school intent, implementation and impact statement.
Sounds, Pronunciation, Tricky Words and Letter Formation
Follow this link to access support documents and videos for parents, direct from the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds website.
Accelerated Reader
Once children have completed the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds programme, they progress onto Accelerated Reader as a home reading scheme. The children are assessed using a Star Test , which is built within the programme. The results of this test give them a Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD), which then allows them to choose books matched to their reading capabilities. The children have daily 0minute reading time in school, to practise and build fluency with their chosen book. They are also expected to read their book at home daily to embed these skills. On completion of a book, the children have the option to take a quiz to assess their knowledge and understanding of what they have read. This is engaging and enjoyable for our children and increases their reading for pleasure. Please listen to your child read at home each day and record a comment in their reading record.
This website is used regularly by staff at the school to choose books that link to our topics. The website is full of quality texts, which offer wonderful opportunities to create positive and meaningful learning experiences at school.
Looking for books to enhance your child s learning further at home? Browse by year group, key stage or even by topic and find quality texts for home as well.
50 Books to Read in Year ...
There are many lists of books that are recommended for children in different year groups to be exposed to. Below, we have shared the lists from Books for Topics, as we believe these are core texts that all the children in each year group would benefit from being exposed to. Some of these are already used in school. Looking for quality texts to read to your children at home? Choose from these lists.
Browse the lists by clicking the links below:
E-Books and Audible Selection
Cornwall Council Library Service:
Did you know that Cornwall Council offer a free Borrow Box service? Here you can download and access hundreds of quality e-books and audiobooks using your smartphone or smart device.
Click the Borrow Box link to find out more.
Oxford Owl
Here you can access a whole range of books produced by Oxford Owl. These books no longer match our chosen Phonics programme, but they are still used throughout the school to support reading development and comprehension skills.
Reading Sheds
KS1 and KS2 Outdoor Reading Areas
Outdoor reading provides the children with the opportunity to bring literacy and stories to life. At St Michael’s Primary School, we are firm believers that the outdoors holds a great wealth of opportunities for young people. We are fortunate to be surrounded by such a vast and inviting outdoor space.
Outdoor learning is a catalyst for encouraging cognitive, social and emotional development. This new and exciting reading area is the perfect environment for children to experience the true pleasure and joy of being immersed in a good book.
Our outdoor reading spaces are used as a “gather together” spot for reading aloud and for group reading sessions, or as a quieter space for individual and small group reading and learning.
Ask any child and most will tell you that they love being outside. One of the best outdoor learning activities is reading books: stepping into the fresh air and losing yourself in a good story.
They feed our imagination and allow us to create completely new worlds within our heads. Taking literature outside gives children the opportunity to explore it in a completely different environment, where the surroundings are incorporated into the experience and their imaginations can be set free.
Thank you to the FOSM who provided funding towards the sheds and to the St Michael’s School Parent Community for generously stocking the sheds with high quality children’s books.
Authorfy
Fun downloadable activity packs to boost reading and writing for pleasure, linked to the latest children's books. Many free downloadable resources, which may support and develop your child's love for reading at home.
Author Links
We aim to update this page with links to author pages, which contain engaging and informative content. Have fun exploring and getting to know our children's favourite authors.