Ditton Primary

Children in our reception classes begin their reading journey with a mixture of listening to stories and rhymes, discussing stories they have had read to them, and phonics.

As the children move into Year 1, they will continue to choose books from the book band that they have been assigned. Children can change their books daily if they have read. We encourage children to read to an adult at least three times per week. In addition, they read with an adult in school at least once a week during guided reading and again on a one to one basis. Some children may be identified as requiring additional support in reading and these children will be heard by an adult on a daily basis.

In key stage  2, children will continue to choose from the book banded books until they reach a level where they would be free to choose any text that they feel has an appropriate level of challenge. Guided reading books will now be chosen from a large selection of real books, chosen for their content and high interest levels. Texts include 'Billionaire Boy', 'Diary of a Killer Cat', 'The Hodgeheg' and 'Skullduggery Pleasant'. Children are expected to take these home and read to a specified point before bringing them back and discussing what they have read in their group.

We follow Letters and Sounds for teaching phonics. Children are grouped within their year groups so that they are able to work at an appropriate level. When children come to the end of Phase 5 they progress to focused spelling, punctuation and grammar work. We hold a number of phonics sessions throughout the year where parents can come along and see how their children are progressing.