We want children to become confident, fluent and thoughtful readers who enjoy reading and can engage with an increasingly wide range of texts.

Reading develops progressively from children's earliest experiences of stories, rhymes and books in Foundation through to increasingly independent and analytical reading in Key Stage 2.

Children develop both the skills needed to read words accurately and fluently and the comprehension skills needed to understand, discuss and respond to what they read. As they progress through school, they develop their vocabulary, retrieve and interpret information, make predictions and inferences, consider authors' choices and discuss their ideas with increasing confidence.

Learning to Read

Children's earliest reading development focuses on building the knowledge and skills they need to decode words successfully.

In Foundation, children learn the sounds represented by letters and groups of letters and begin to blend these sounds to read words. They read simple sentences and books that are consistent with their developing phonic knowledge.

Throughout Key Stage 1, children apply their phonic knowledge to unfamiliar words, develop their recognition of common exception words and build accuracy, fluency and confidence through reading and re-reading.

As children move into Key Stage 2, they increasingly read independently and develop strategies for tackling unfamiliar vocabulary. Their growing understanding of root words, prefixes and suffixes supports them in both reading unfamiliar words and understanding their meaning.

More information about our systematic approach to early reading can be found on our Phonics page.

Vocabulary and Understanding

Developing a rich vocabulary is an important part of learning to read.

In Foundation, children encounter new vocabulary through stories, verbal discussion and their wider experiences. As they progress, they draw upon their existing knowledge and vocabulary to help them understand what they read and hear.

Children increasingly use the context of a text to explore unfamiliar words and consider their meaning. By Key Stage 2, they identify unfamiliar vocabulary, ask questions to improve their understanding and use strategies to establish meaning.

As their reading develops, children become increasingly able to summarise the main ideas within texts and explain their understanding using evidence from what they have read.

Retrieving Information

Children learn to find, retrieve and use information from texts.

This begins in Foundation through talking about what children have heard and develops in Key Stage 1 as children answer questions, locate information and explain their understanding.

As they progress through Key Stage 2, children develop strategies such as skimming and scanning and use features including text marking and source selection to locate relevant information efficiently.

By Years 5 and 6, children retrieve, record and present information from fiction and non-fiction, compare information from different sources and use evidence from texts to support their ideas and conclusions.

Prediction and Inference

Children learn to look beyond information that is stated explicitly and use what they know to predict and infer.

Younger children make predictions about stories using illustrations, covers and what they have already heard or read. As their reading develops, children increasingly base their predictions on evidence from the text and their wider knowledge.

Children also develop their ability to infer characters' thoughts, feelings and motivations and to consider why events happen. In upper Key Stage 2, they explore increasingly complex ideas, including messages, moods and feelings, and justify their interpretations using evidence from the text.

Sequencing and Summarising

Understanding how information and events fit together develops progressively across the school.

Children begin by sequencing familiar events and pictures before learning to sequence events within stories and explain their choices.

As texts become increasingly complex, children consider how information is organised and how different parts contribute to the whole. In upper Key Stage 2, this develops into sequencing and manipulating sections of texts and recognising structures such as linear narratives, flashbacks and dual narratives.

Understanding Authors' Choices

As children's reading develops, they begin to consider how and why authors make particular choices.

In fiction, children explore words and phrases that capture their interest and imagination and consider how language and structure contribute to meaning.

By Years 5 and 6, children identify how an author's choices of language, structure and presentation affect the reader and discuss and evaluate how figurative language contributes to meaning.

Children also develop their understanding of non-fiction. They encounter texts organised in different ways and learn to recognise their purposes and features. As they progress, they distinguish between statements of fact and opinion and independently locate information within non-fiction texts to support conclusions.

Talking About Reading

Discussion is an important part of children's development as readers.

From Foundation, children are encouraged to talk about stories, rhymes and poems, express their responses and use newly acquired vocabulary.

As they progress through school, children discuss an increasingly wide range of books, poems and other texts. They learn to listen to the views of others, explain their own ideas and identify similarities and differences between texts and authors.

By Years 5 and 6, children recommend books to their peers, participate in discussions, challenge views courteously and explain and justify their opinions. They develop their ability to discuss what they have read through increasingly formal presentations and debates.

Reading Curriculum Overview

Our Reading Curriculum Overview shows how children's reading knowledge and skills develop progressively from Foundation to Year 6, from early decoding and word reading through to increasingly sophisticated comprehension and discussion.

The overview sets out progression in decoding, vocabulary, retrieval, prediction, sequencing, inference, authorial intent and reading discussion.

Please view our Reading Curriculum Overview below to see the progression of learning across the school.