Reading Overview

Reading Overview

Our Vision for Reading

At Haresfield School, we believe that reading is the foundation of all learning. Our aim is to ensure every child becomes a confident, fluent reader who develops a lifelong love of books. We provide a consistent, progressive approach to reading from Early Years through to Year 6, ensuring that all pupils have the skills, strategies, and enthusiasm needed to succeed.

Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) and Year 1: Early Reading & Phonics

Phonics: Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised

We use Little Wandle as our systematic synthetic phonics programme. This ensures a highly structured, research‑informed approach to early reading.

Children in EYFS and Year 1 receive:

• Daily phonics lessons following the Little Wandle progression
• Targeted practice sessions focusing on decoding, blending, and tricky words
• Regular assessment to identify gaps and provide timely intervention

Reading Books

Children take home fully decodable books matched to their current phonics phase. This ensures:

• Success and confidence when reading independently
• Opportunities to practise the sounds and skills taught in class
• Strong home–school partnerships in early reading development

Children also take home a sharing book to enjoy with an adult, helping to build vocabulary, comprehension, and a love of stories.

Years 2–6: Developing Fluency, Comprehension & Reading for Pleasure

Whole-Class Reading Lessons

From Year 2 onwards, children are taught reading through whole-class reading sessions. This approach ensures:

• Exposure to high-quality, challenging texts
• Explicit teaching of vocabulary, inference, retrieval, summarising, prediction, and authorial intent
• Inclusive learning where all pupils access rich discussion and modelling
• Opportunities for structured partner talk and guided practice

Texts are carefully chosen to reflect a diverse range of authors, genres, cultures, and themes.

Reading Fluency Lessons

To strengthen automaticity and confidence, pupils also take part in reading fluency lessons, which may include:

• Echo reading
• Choral reading
• Repeated reading
• Performance reading

These sessions help pupils develop prosody, pace, and expression, supporting deeper comprehension.

Reading Beyond the Classroom

Across the school, we promote reading for pleasure through:

• Daily story time
• Class book corners
• Library visits
• Reading challenges and events
• Author studies and enrichment activities
• Reading certificates in Worship

We aim to create a culture where reading is valued, celebrated, and enjoyed by all.

Impact

By the end of their time at Haresfield School, pupils will:

• Be fluent, confident readers
• Have strong comprehension skills across a range of text types
• Be equipped with the reading strategies needed for the next stage of their education
• View reading as a meaningful, enjoyable part of their lives