At St Saviour's we use The Literacy Tree scheme as part of our Reading Curriculum from Year 2 through to Year 6. This is used alongside our class story time.

• Quality text selection is key – both for individual book choices, and the selection of texts across a school.  Children need a rich, diverse and motivating literary journey throughout their time with you and this applies to all children.  Whole-class reading of quality texts should be inclusive and allow all children in the class to access the same rich texts.  

• The value of teachers reading aloud cannot be underestimated – this not only aids the inclusivity of whole-class reading but provides regular models of fluency, pace and intonation in reading and allows children to immerse themselves in the world of a book in a shared experience. 

• Whole texts, not extracts – children need to experience whole texts and cannot be taught to be readers through the use of extracts.  

• A culture of reading for pleasure needs a deep and strategic approach – building this culture takes time and runs deeper than competitions and dress-up days.  It is about placing reading at the heart of your school, celebrating it and giving it real value so that it permeates through the very fabric of your school community.  

• A wider lens on comprehension – comprehension is an outcome, not a skill.  We need to teach reading through a wider lens than looking at individual skills and explore whole texts and the range of strategies we use as readers to make meaning.

• Book talk is vital – deep discussion about books is essential in order to create real readers.  Children need the opportunity to think deeply about characters, plots and themes within books and to discuss these in pairs, groups and with an adult.  As teachers, we need to provide children with the models and scaffolds to support them with these discussions.  

• Vocabulary needs explicit teaching and interactive follow up – building children’s vocabulary is a key component in developing reading.  We need to ensure vocabulary is carefully selected and explicitly taught with opportunities for children to practise, apply and consolidate their understanding.

Please click on the link to see our reading curriculum in depth: Reading Curriculum

Phonics Guidance

At St Saviour's we use ELS (Essential Letters and Sounds) as our DfE accredited phonics programme. Please see below guidance for our systematic teaching of phonics in KS1.