English – Reading (including Phonics)

Reading Intent Statement

At St Mark’s Primary School, we believe that reading is an essential skill for life and we are committed to ensuring that all pupils develop a lifelong love of reading.

We aim to do this by placing reading at the heart of our curriculum. Throughout their time at St Mark’s, children will read a range of high quality books including fiction, non-fiction and poetry from across the curriculum, which are rich in vocabulary. Children are inspired by a range of authors and poets, which will give them a good grounding for independent reading in the future.

As well as appreciating books that are read to them or shared in class, children are taught to read fluently through a systematic approach to phonics, which is built upon during their learning journey to develop a deeper understanding of language. Read Write Inc. is the synthetic phonics programme used across school to support the teaching of reading.

Regardless of children’s’ starting points, our curriculum is developed to allow all children to access age appropriate texts and are not limited by their reading ability.

Reading is prioritised at St Mark’s and children are given a variety of opportunities to read throughout the day including: guided reading, paired reading, independent reading, 1-1 reading and reading for pleasure.

English (Reading) Policy, Plans & Maps
File Type	Subject	Date Posted
	Reading Policy	Autumn 2023
	Reading Progression Map EYFS & KS1 2023-2024	Autumn 2023
	Reading Progression Map KS2 2023-2024	Autumn 2023

Recommended Reads

Each year group has a set of 40 books and the children are challenged to read these across the year as their Recommended Reads challenge. These books are all aimed at developing reading for pleasure and would be enjoyed as a family too. If a child completes the Recommended Reads challenge for their year group, they achieve a special certificate and badge in recognition of this. These are shown below:

Recommended Reads
File Type	Subject	Date Posted
	Reception 40 Recommended Reads	Autumn 2023
	Year 1 – 40 Recommended Reads	Autumn 2023
	Year 2 – 40 Recommended Reads	Autumn 2023
	Year 3 – 40 Recommended Reads	Autumn 2023
	Year 4 – 40 Recommended Reads	Autumn 2023
	Year 5 – 40 Recommended Reads	Autumn 2023
	Year 6 – 40 Recommended Reads	Autumn 2023

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