‘Pupils’ reading skills are particularly good. Teachers help pupils in the early stages of reading well.’ Ofsted 2019

We are passionate about developing confident, proficient readers. We want our children to develop a lifelong enjoyment of reading and leave us in Year 2 with a love of literature and a thirst for knowledge. The development of reading begins with the use of a systematic phonics approach; building a knowledge of phonemes and graphemes as well as increasing recognition of sight words. We follow ‘Song of Sounds’ phonic scheme.  

At Fairway our children will be exposed to a wide range of high quality genres and authors to feed their imagination. Their reading diet will be developed through daily whole class reading, teachers sharing stories daily and regular reading within the class. Fluency and comprehension will be developed through the use of colour banded decodable books. Our reading scheme is designed to be progressive and supportive with books linked directly to the children’s developing knowledge. The scheme starts with wordless picture books for the children to begin telling their own stories and developing an understanding of story structure. As the children progress through the levels, they encounter books that are closely matched to our phonics scheme the ‘Song of Sounds’.

Children experience reading in school on an individual basis and within a group supported by teachers. This ensures that we focus on the skills of reading as well as developing ‘book talk’ focusing on inference and deduction of characters, language and plot. Alongside word reading, fluency and comprehension skills we develop high quality discussions and questioning during individual, guided and whole class reading.

At Fairway, teachers act as role models in their enthusiasm for reading keeping up to date with current children’s literature and choosing stimulating, quality literatures and non-fiction to lead or support half termly topics. All of our learning stems from a quality picture book, we call this our ‘Hook’ for learning. As a result, teaching of reading is embedded within meaningful and interesting contexts.  

Reading celebrations such as World Book Day, poetry days and reading assemblies are used to emphasise the importance of reading and encourage the children to read at home, both with their parents and independently.

Please use these links to some helpful resources for you at home.

Useful information for parents

Useful websites with games and activities for children