Reading
Reading at Shenton Primary School
At Shenton Primary School, reading is at the heart of our curriculum. We follow the National Curriculum for Reading and are committed to ensuring that every child becomes a confident, fluent reader with a lifelong love of books.
Reading is a fundamental skill that enables children to access the wider curriculum, develop rich vocabulary, think critically and creatively, and succeed in school and beyond. We believe that every child can learn to read, regardless of their background, language or additional needs.
As Ofsted states in Reading by Six (2010):
"The best primary schools in England teach virtually every child to read, regardless of the social and economic circumstances of their neighbourhoods, the ethnicity of their pupils, the language spoken at home and most special educational needs or disabilities."
This ambition drives our approach to reading. We want all children to leave Shenton as articulate, literate and enthusiastic readers who are well prepared for the next stage of their education and future life opportunities.
Supporting your child with Reading
Reading is one of the most important skills your child will learn. Once children can read independently, they can learn anything.
Children typically develop reading through three key stages:
- Developing an awareness of books and stories
- Learning to decode words accurately
- Reading fluently and understanding meaning
Developing an awareness of Reading
A child's journey as a reader begins long before they start school. From birth, children learn about language and communication through everyday interactions with their families.
Sharing books, stories, songs and rhymes helps children understand that books carry meaning and enjoyment. They learn how to hold a book, turn pages, follow a story sequence and use pictures to help them understand what is happening.
By seeing adults read and enjoying books together, children develop positive attitudes towards reading and begin to see themselves as readers.
Learning to read at home
As your child begins to read, they may bring home a set of common exception words (sometimes called sight words). These are words that cannot always be sounded out using phonics alone, so children need to learn to recognise them quickly and automatically.
Please practise these words regularly at home. Reception children will begin by learning the first set of common exception words before progressing to additional words throughout Key Stage 1.
Here are the first 45 sight words that Reception children need to learn and the next set of words for KS1 children.
If your child is in Year 1, they will also bring home a decodable reading book that closely matches the phonics knowledge they are learning in school. Most words in the book can be read by applying their phonics skills and knowledge of common exception words. Children in Year 2 and some older children across the school will also bring home a decodable reading book.
When your child comes across an unfamiliar word, encourage them to:
- Look carefully at the letters
- Say the sounds
- Blend the sounds together to read the word
This is the same approach we use in school and helps children become confident, independent readers.
Phonics is taught daily in school, so we do not expect parents to teach new sounds at home. Instead, your support with reading practice, word recognition and enjoying books together makes a huge difference.
If you have any questions about reading or phonics, please speak to your child's teacher.
Reading for meaning
As children become fluent readers and progress through the higher book bands, the focus shifts from simply reading the words to understanding, discussing and thinking about what they have read.
One of the best ways to support your child at this stage is by talking about their reading. Asking questions helps children develop comprehension skills, deepen their understanding and think critically about texts.
Try using the 5 Ws:
- Who is the story about?
- What happened?
- Where did the events take place?
- When did it happen?
- Why did it happen?
The most challenging and important questions often begin with Why because they encourage children to explain their thinking, justify their ideas and make connections between different parts of the text.
You could also ask:
- How do you think the character is feeling? Why?
- What might happen next?
- What is the main message of the story?
- Which part was your favourite and why?
- Can you find evidence in the text to support your answer?
These conversations help children become thoughtful, confident readers who can understand, analyse and enjoy a wide range of texts.
Choosing the right book
Helping your child choose a suitable book is important for building confidence, fluency and enjoyment.
When selecting a book, try the following:
- Choose a book that interests your child. Children are more motivated to read when they enjoy the topic, author or story.
- Read a page together. Listen to your child read and notice how easily they can decode the words.
- Check for understanding. Ask a few simple questions about what they have read to ensure they understand the text.
- Aim for the right level of challenge. If your child struggles with too many words or loses the meaning of the text, the book may be too difficult. A suitable book should contain mostly familiar words, while introducing a small number of new words and ideas.
A good book match helps children develop fluency, build confidence and enjoy reading, while still providing opportunities to learn and grow as readers.
School Reading Scheme
At Shenton Primary School, we use a range of carefully selected books to support children on their reading journey. Our reading scheme is primarily based on PM Benchmark books, organised into colour bands that provide clear progression as children develop their reading skills.
To ensure children experience a wide variety of high-quality texts, we also use books from other schemes, including Collins Big Cat and Project X.
Children are regularly assessed to ensure they are matched to books that provide the right level of challenge and support. They will bring home a reading book matched to their current reading level and are encouraged to read regularly at home. We recommend that parents listen to their child read as often as possible and discuss what they have read to support both fluency and comprehension.
Decodable Reading Books
Children in the early stages of learning to read will also bring home a decodable reading book. These books are closely matched to the phonics knowledge they are learning in school and allow children to practise and apply their growing understanding of letter sounds and blending skills.
Reading the same decodable book several times helps children build accuracy, fluency and confidence, supporting them to become successful, independent readers.
The teaching of Phonics
At Shenton Primary School, phonics is taught daily in Nursery, Reception and Year 1 using the DfE-validated programme ALS Phonics: Letters and Sounds. This systematic synthetic phonics (SSP) programme provides a clear and progressive approach to learning the skills needed for reading and spelling.
Children are taught new grapheme-phoneme correspondences (GPCs) while regularly revisiting and consolidating previously taught learning. They learn that letters and groups of letters represent the sounds in spoken words, enabling them to decode unfamiliar words and develop accurate spelling skills.
Alongside learning letter-sound correspondences, children are taught to blend sounds together to read words and segment words into sounds for spelling. These skills are practised daily and applied when reading carefully matched decodable books that reflect their current phonics knowledge.
Children also learn to recognise and read common exception words, which contain unusual spelling patterns that cannot always be decoded using phonics alone.
While phonics provides the foundation for reading, we also believe that children should experience a rich and varied reading diet. Through story time, class texts and reading for pleasure opportunities, children hear, discuss and enjoy a wide range of high-quality books, helping to develop their vocabulary, language comprehension and love of reading.
By combining strong phonics teaching with meaningful reading experiences, we support every child to become a confident, fluent and enthusiastic reader.
Shared Reading
Shared Reading is a key part of our reading curriculum and helps children develop both word-reading and comprehension skills.
In Nursery and Reception Shared Reading provides opportunities for children to read and discuss high-quality texts together. Through carefully planned lessons, children practise applying their phonics knowledge, recognising common exception words and developing early comprehension skills such as predicting, questioning and discussing texts.
As children move through Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2, Shared Reading focuses on developing fluent, thoughtful and independent readers. Whole-class reading sessions provide explicit teaching of comprehension strategies, using high-quality texts that broaden children's knowledge, vocabulary and understanding of the world.
During these sessions, teachers model the thinking processes of skilled readers, including how to:
- Visualise and create mental images
- Ask and answer questions
- Summarise key information
- Make connections within and across texts
- Use working memory to retain information
- Infer meaning from evidence
- Apply grammar and vocabulary knowledge to aid understanding
Children are then given opportunities to practise and apply these strategies independently and collaboratively using a range of fiction, non-fiction and poetry texts.
Shared Reading plays an important role in helping children become confident readers who can think critically, discuss ideas and understand increasingly complex texts. Progression in reading skills and text choices is carefully planned across the school to ensure children build on their knowledge and understanding year on year.
See Long Term Plan, which outlines the comprehension strategies taught in each year group and the text being used.
Guided Reading
Guided Reading is an important part of our reading provision at Shenton Primary School. These small-group sessions provide children with opportunities to apply the reading skills and strategies taught during whole-class reading lessons.
Working with an adult, children read carefully selected texts that are matched to their current reading stage. Teachers support children to develop fluency, accuracy and comprehension through discussion, questioning and explicit teaching. Sessions are designed to reinforce learning, address misconceptions and provide appropriate challenge, helping children become increasingly confident and independent readers.
Assessment is ongoing and children are regularly monitored using PM Benchmark assessments, in-school assessments and teacher judgement. This ensures that reading books are accurately matched to each child's needs, providing the right balance of support and challenge to promote progress in reading fluency and comprehension.
Early Reading
For children in the early stages of learning to read, Guided Reading focuses on the application of phonics skills using fully decodable texts. These books are closely matched to the grapheme-phoneme correspondences (GPCs) children have been taught, enabling them to practise blending, develop automaticity and build confidence as readers.
Through regular Guided Reading sessions, children develop the skills, knowledge and understanding needed to become fluent, enthusiastic and successful readers.
Key Documents:
- Reading Policy
World Book Day 2026
