Guided Reading - Reception & KS1

Guided Reading is taught daily from Reception, when children are working at an appropriate level and throughout Y1. As part of this, children will have the opportunity to read as part of group with an adult at least once per week. Children are grouped according to their reading ability and the text is carefully chosen to match their phonic ability. Children in Y2 who have passed the phonics screening check are provided with colour band books, based on assessments of their decoding and comprehension abilities. These sessions are led by a teacher or teaching assistant and are used to develop the children’s decoding skills, alongside developing their comprehension skills in the follow areas:

At St Mary’s we use 'Rocket Phonics' reading scheme in Reception and Y1. When children reach Y2, other schemes are also incorporated including Big Cat Collins and Oxford Reading Tree. The document entitled 'Age Related Texts' below sets out our expectations for the level of texts that children should be reading in given year groups. Reading characters are introduced to the children in Reception and reading sessions are taught against these characters throughout school. These characters aim to support children in understanding and applying comprehension skills. The characters are - spotter; clue finder; chatterer; selector. Whole class reading comprehension is taught in Year 1 and Year 2 once a week and will teach based on one of these characters.