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Reading

The reading curriculum at St Matthew’s uses engaging texts to motivate children to read whilst teaching the main reading skills appropriate to each year group. We are dedicated to creating lifelong readers and promoting reading for pleasure.

Early Readers

Children begin reading through the Read Write Inc. phonics scheme, from Reception through to the spring term of Year 2*, before continuing on St. Matthew’s bespoke curriculum.

* children may access the St. Matthew’s curriculum in autumn term if appropriate.

The St. Matthew's Curriculum

Our curriculum is organised around high-quality texts chosen by the SLT team that provide great opportunities to teach reading in line with the National Curriculum of English (see appendix A). Texts have been selected to ensure coverage of classic literature, modern diverse authors, and cross-curricular links. Each child has their own individual text to use, to ensure the maximum physical enjoyment of reading.

Reading Lessons

Pupils on the St. Matthew’s curriculum learn across five structured reading sessions each week, ensuring a balance of fluency, comprehension, and reading for pleasure. Each session is carefully designed to improve skills, stamina and enjoyment in line with the National Curriculum.

Day

Monday (30 mins)

Tuesday (30 mins)

Wednesday (30 mins)

Thursday (30 mins)

Friday (2 x 30 mins)

Purpose

Reading for Pleasure

Reading for Success

Lesson

Reading Mechanics & Book Talk

 

Book Talk & Oral Comprehension

Written Comprehension

(Introduction & Practice)

Written Comprehension

(Practice) 

Written Comprehension

(Practice) 

Written Comprehension

(Independent)
Teaching and Learning

Improving reading fluency.  

Book talk.

Vocabulary acquisition

 

Oral comprehension

Single domain focus.

Comprehension strategies (written)

 

Single domain focus.

Feedback.

Scaffolded written comprehension practice (written).

Single domain focus.

Feedback.

Scaffolded written comprehension practice (written).

Single domain focus.

Feedback.

Multi-domain assessment.

Across the week, pupils encounter a variety of texts (fiction, non-fiction, poetry) and engage in whole-class, paired, and independent reading. Teachers explicitly teach the eight reading domains across each term (vocabulary, retrieval, summarising, inference, prediction, cohesion and structure, author’s choice, comparison), ensuring pupils develop a full repertoire of comprehension strategies.

Home Readers

In EYFS and KS1, children take home a RWI book which matches their ability. When children complete the RWI scheme, they move to book bands and the colour matches their reading level. Throughout school, children take home a book to read and this ensures that children practise fluency outside of school and teachers can respond promptly to gaps in decoding or comprehension. Each week, students have a 1:1 reading session with an adult in which they are heard read, asked comprehension questions about the book and their home reading is monitored. Teachers  decide each session whether the child continues on their current level or moves onto the next. Each child has a reading record that serves as both correspondence between the teacher and parent, and a record of the child’s home reading throughout the year.

RWI and Book Bands