Reading
We love reading at St Charles RC Primary School
At St Charles RC Primary School, we passionately believe that a strong foundation in reading not only allows children to access all areas of curriculum but also allows children to gain a huge amount of pleasure.
We actively encourage reading in all its forms and aim to create avid readers who are inspired and entertained by the books they read and wish to continue reading in their own time and in later life.
Reading in Key Stage One
All children in Key Stage One access daily phonics lessons. We use Essential Letters and Sounds (ELS) to support our teaching of phonics. Children are sent home with a phonetically decodable book which allows children to practise the sounds they have been learning in school and consolidate the sounds they have been learning to date.
At the end of Year One, children sit a phonics screening check. We are proud of our results in these assessments. In 2025, 95% of children passed the phonics screening check.
We continue to practise phonics in Year 2 in order to strengthen children’s reading. Daily phonics is then replaced with Guided Reading in the later stages of Key Stage One.
We use the Oxford Reading Scheme to send children home with a banded book that corresponds to the level at which they are working.
What Ofsted said about reading at St Charles RC Primary School…
“The school places a sharp focus on making sure that children get off to a strong start in learning to read. Children in the Reception Year learn corresponding letters and sounds straight away. Pupils in Year 1 learn to read more complex words so that, by the time they leave Year 2, pupils are confident and fluent readers.” Ofsted 2025. Read the full report here.
We are experts at pinpointing where children find reading difficult and provide a range of additional support for pupils who require extra reading practice. This could be through out-of-class paired reading and reading interventions or additional in-class support.
What Ofsted said about reading at St Charles RC Primary School…
“Where some pupils find learning to read difficult, the school identifies them promptly and offers a wealth of support to help them to catch up quickly.” Ofsted 2025. Read the full report here.
Reading in Key Stage 2
Guided Reading lessons take place up to four times weekly in Key Stage 2. These almost daily sessions are designed to develop children’s reading and expose them to an increasingly large amount of texts.
Guided Reading sessions may take the form of a carousel or, largely in upper key stage 2, will be carried out through by whole-class guided reading. This approach accelerates reading skills by exposing and supporting children with a text that they may not be able to access independently themselves.
In many cases, Guided Reading texts will link to the unit being studied in English however we aim to expose children to a huge variety of texts to support vocabulary acquisition. Pupils may therefore study texts connected to their learning in Science, Geography or History for example.
Each classroom has its own set of age-appropriate books for children to select themselves as an independent reading book.
We have a well-stocked library and children throughout St Charles RC School act as librarians to help other children choose the right book for them.
What Ofsted said about reading at St Charles RC Primary School…
“Older pupils speak animatedly of their passion for reading the wide range of books that the school provides.” Ofsted 2025. Read the full report here.
Our 2024 Key Stage 2 SATS results place our results in Reading both inline with the national average and inline with the average for Lancashire.
Enrichment
- Throughout the school year, we organise a range of different events to help pupils engage with reading. These include but are not limited to:
- Book fairs
- World Book Day celebrations including staff members putting on a production of a popular children’s book
- Author visits
- Trips to Rishton Library
