At Kingsclere CE Primary School, we firmly believe that reading is one of the most important skills we can teach children. We work in partnership with children and parents to foster a lifelong love of reading.

From Early Years Foundation Stage to Year 2 and where appropriate in Years 3, 4, 5 and 6 pupils take part in phonic lessons and phonic based spelling lessons to support early reading and writing.  In September 2022, we introduced our new Phonics Scheme – Phonics Shed – which is a Department for Education validated systematic synthetic phonics programme. 

Once children are secure in their phonic knowledge, they are taught year group specific spelling patterns.  The school uses Spelling Shed to support the teaching and learning of spellings.

In Key Stage 1 and 2, daily guided reading sessions consist of targeted reading lessons that are geared towards specific skills at an appropriately pitched level. A mixture of small group and whole class teaching of reading is carried out. Children also access colour banded books which the teacher has assessed to be suitable for the child’s level of reading.  In addition to this, children will have a library book from their class library or the school library to share at home with parents/carers or enjoy independently. Once a child is a ‘Free-Reader’, they will use the school and classroom library to access books which are age and level appropriate.