Phonics 

At St Katherine's School & Nursery we follow the Sounds-Write Scheme. 

Sounds-Write is an expertly structured synthetic phonics programme based on the science of reading. This multisensory, code-oriented, comprehensive approach to literacy has been designed by teachers— for teachers.

Our teachers and teacher assistants access a high-quality development programme which empowers them to impart on children those most critical abilities for a happy, successful life and career: excellent reading and writing skills.

Please see our teaching sequence for Reception to Year 2. 

Reading 

At St. Katherine’s School and Nursery, we believe reading is an essential life skill and lies at the heart of our curriculum. Every single class has daily phonics or reading sessions where we place a high importance in the ability to decode real words and become fluent readers. We do this by giving the children plenty of opportunities to hear model readers, time for repeated reading of texts and chances to read aloud with peers.

Our school reading spine is selected to provide a clear vision of our children’s reading diet and ensure coverage of a diverse range of authors and genres including; fiction, non-fiction and poetry.  Using carefully selected texts, children are able to build on their knowledge of the curriculum as well as develop a stronger understanding of relevant vocabulary.  With the understanding that greater word recognition and fluency allows children to develop deeper comprehension skills. We feel it is also important, through Key Stage 2 that we allocate time to learn Etymological/Tier 2 vocabulary too. 

Reading For Pleasure 

In or school we want to build a community of readers who love reading and create a positive reading culture. We are fostering our love of reading in a number of ways: 

• Weekly visits to our recently updated and well-stocked library

• Promoting love of books within the school - termly Reading Newsletters, Book Fairs, Book Swaps

• Year 6 Reading Ambassadors

• Rewarding daily reading through our 'Race to Read'

• Daily class book read by our teachers in every class

• Encouraging a varied diet of genres and authors through St. Katherine’s Reading Spine