Reading and Phonics Information

At Our Lady Queen of Peace Catholic Primary School we are passionate about ensuring all children become confident and enthusiastic readers and writers. Alongside our phonics, Twinkl is our systematic reading scheme in EYFS and Year 1. Year 2 are exposed to fully decodable stage books and then Key Stage 2 are supported in choosing one of our rich variety of both fiction and non-fiction texts to match their current reading ability. By increasing the amount of reading throughout the day, pupils develop a wider vocabulary and deeper knowledge of the world around them. 

Research has shown that a students’ background knowledge is the strongest factor that develops comprehension ability. We believe that alongside phonics, wide opportunities for reading comprehension provides the foundations to develop a passion and love for reading. This is conducted through whole class reading using VIPERS in Years 2-6 and guided group reading in EYFS and Year 1.  

When starting at Our Lady Queen of Peace Catholic Primary School, children are taught to combine sounds (blend) and separate sounds (segment) to support early reading. As children progress further they are encouraged to read whole words and understand their meaning (decode). Towards the end of Year 1, comprehension skills begin to develop and this is build further upon in each year through to Year 6.  

At Our Lady Queen of Peace Catholic Primary School, we deploy effective strategies to support fluent, accurate and confident reading. These strategies are: 

To ensure children are exposed to a wide range of comprehension skills, we use VIPERS during our whole class guided reading sessions. Children get to read a text as a class and then have a specific focus of one or more of the VIPERS to enable them to comprehend the text using a variety of skills.

VIPERS stands for Vocabulary, Inference, Prediction, Explain, Retrieve and Summarise (or Sequence). 

During the Vocabulary focus, children will explore the words used within the text, clarify their meaning and justify the word choice by the author. 

During the Infer focus, children will 'read between the lines'. The author may not explicitly state how a character is feeling or what they are thinking but may give clues to allow the reader to infer more. 

During the Prediction focus, children use a variety of clues from the text to predict what will happen next or throughout the story. In KS1 this may be through pictorial cues or deliberate word choice. In KS2 children will have to draw on information they have inferred to predict the outcomes for the characters. 

During the Explain focus, children will explain their answer to a question, using a wide range of evidence. This goes beyond simply retrieving facts but drawing them together to create a conclusion. 

During the Retrieve focus, children will retrieve simple facts and information from the text. For example, what was her name? What was the date that the Titanic sank? etc. 

During the Summarise/Sequence focus, children will either take the text that they have read and sequence the order of the events or alternatively give a brief summary of the paragraph/page/chapter they have read. 

In addition, children get the opportunity to listen to their teachers read to them on a daily basis. By the end of year 6, pupils will have read a wide range of texts from our reading list, with a wide range of authors, characters, themes and diverse language which continues to develop their passion for reading to take through to their future. This has been developed with our Head Teacher and Year 6 Reader Leaders who act as reading ambassadors for all children at Our Lady Queen of Peace.  

We continue to develop this love of reading at home by engaging parents through our reading competitions, ‘Stay and Read’ sessions, Pyjamarama, World Book Day and Roald Dahl Day. Weekly, book recommendations are shared with parents through our school newsletter and social media platforms. All events continue to be successful and further develop our relationship with our families, as we work collaboratively to create passionate readers. As well as this, parents are also encouraged to elicit opportunities for reading through resources/questions provided by year group teachers in school.  

Reading is assessed regularly and monitored on the school tracking system. In addition, children are assessed using the Twinkl Reading Assessments to check progress in reading age relative to their chronological age. In Year 2 and Year 6, SAT Reading Assessments are also used to monitor progress. Liaison with the school SENCo and external agencies is arranged for children who require additional support and reading intervention strategies. 

Teaching Phonics

Phonics is taught in a highly structured programme of daily lessons across FS/KS1 and weekly in KS2 using Twinkl Phonics a scheme approved and validated by the DfE. 

Each session gives an opportunity for children to revisit their previous experience, be taught new skills, practise together and apply what they have learned.

Phonics Assessment

Children’s progress is continually reviewed to allow for movement between ability groups, and children move phonics group when it is felt necessary to meet their needs.

The national Phonics screening check is performed in June of Year 1. Prior to this, the Year 1 phonics workshop gives parents information about how they can support their children at home with phonics. The purpose of the screening check is to confirm that all children have learned phonic decoding to an age-appropriate standard. The children who did not meet the required standard for the check in year 1 enter again in year 2 with additional support.