Our Reading Scheme

We follow the Oxford Reading Scheme, using the decodable Project X “Alien Adventures” books, which follow the action-packed adventures of Max, Cat, Ant and Tiger as they journey through space. These books are perfect for motivating our young readers.

We also use “Word Sparks” to develop and enrich children’s vocabulary, as well as enhance their decoding skills.     See the video below to explain more about word sparks.

As the children become more confident, they read longer books with chapters and more complex plots and a wider range of vocabulary from the Treetops range. This includes the Fiction, Chucklers and Greatest Stories books.

Individual Reading and Paired Reading

At Castleton, we prioritise reading and dedicate a lot of our staff resources to reading with children, giving them opportunities to practise their decoding skills, leading to developing their fluency, confidence and comprehension.  

All children in Key Stage One read individually with an adult at least four times a week until they move to Phase 6. At this stage, they are paired with a child of a similar reading ability, so they can practise reading out loud as well as support each other and discuss vocabulary, plot, characters etc.

Group Reading

Our children in Reception and Key Stage One also benefit from regular group reading sessions. In Reception the children read PM books (Magenta Level) which introduces fundamental reading concepts and skills to early and emergent readers, building their knowledge of letter-sound correspondences as well as simple high-frequency words.

Once the children are secure with Phase Two of Letters and Sounds, they read decodable books from the Floppy’s Phonics, Songbirds and In Fact ranges. This means that children have access to a range of engaging fiction and non-fiction texts.

As the children become more confident and fluent and move through the levels, they can practise their acquired phonics skills as well as talk about what they have read and answer questions to show their understanding. When they reach Phase 6 of Letters and Sounds, the focus shifts to developing their comprehension skills to prepare them for the demands of the Key Stage Two curriculum. Teachers plan from the Lancashire Learning and Progression Steps (LAPS) for Reading in order to ensure progression and curriculum coverage.

Reading Volunteers

We are fortunate to have many reading volunteers who join us in school to read with children.

KS2 Reading Lessons

When the children move into Key Stage Two, they have a reading lesson four times a week, in which they engage more deeply with a text from the Reading Spine. Teaching is directed to developing their vocabulary and widening their breadth and depth of reading, to make sure they become independent, fluent and enthusiastic readers.  By the end of Year Six, pupils’ reading should be fluent and effortless so that they can manage the demands of the secondary school curriculum. We use a range of whole texts and extracts, to ensure that children are exposed to a wide range of literature.

Reading Intervention

Those who require continued support or additional intervention so they can catch up to their peers, continue to access phonics instruction and apply this to reading through reading and re-reading decodable books. They access age-appropriate texts through the texts used to stimulate and engage them in writing as well as their class novels. This means that they still listen to new books and hear and learn new vocabulary and grammatical structures.

In addition, we use Lexplore Intensive as an all-encompassing reading development and intervention programme, pioneered by experienced SENDCOs and dyslexia specialists. It follows a structured, systematic phonics program to help children experiencing specific reading difficulties.

Click on the Lexplore image below to find out more.