Early Reading in our EYFS and Year 1 follows the Little Wandle Phonics scheme. See Phonics Section on website for more details. 

From Year 2 onwards, when pupils' phonemic awareness and phonic are stong enough, Grammarsaurus Comprehension Crushers are used to continue to build fluency in reading, while also ensuring children learn key comprehension skills to gain in depth understand of texts. Children learn to retrieve, infer, explain and summarise in Reading lessons. Emphasis is also based on children's understanding of vocabulary.  The scheme is designed to maximise opportunity for daily, weekly and monthly review, to ensure new vocabulary, concepts and knowledge are encoded into long-term memory. Each unit encompasses a range of fluency and vocabulary activities to improve reading comprehension. 

In our sequence of Reading lessons, first prior knowledge is discussed to help contextualise the text being studied. During these lessons, there is an emphasis on pupils' understanding of vocabulary, whether these be tier 3 words - vocabulary which is essential for mastering specific academic subjects - or tier 2 words - high-frequency, versatile words, which are crucial for building a robust vocabulary foundation. Fluency grids are used to teach children correct pronunciation of words, as well as their meaning. The aim is that children will be able to automatically decode these words so that they are not stumbling blocks when reading the text being studied. Our next lessons focus on layered reading. We use echo read to model and practice good reading, as well as timed read to encourage pupils to focus on their speed of reading and overall fluency.  

Following these sessions, now, with a greater overall understanding of the text, pupils summarise the important parts of the text by answering key questions. 

National Curriculum content domains are then taught. Each content domain, comprehension lesson has a focus content domain and specific question format.  Modelled and shared questions are used to firstly talk through the text and strategies used to find information and evidence. Once modelled and shared questions have been completed, children then complete independent questions. 

At the end of each teaching sequence, an unseen text allows pupils to answer new sets of questions to show that they can apply strategies learnt. If children require further practice mini reads are used to close gaps.