At Whitchuch Primary we promote a 'phonics first' approach and in both our
guided reading sessions at school and in the books children take home; texts are
very closely matched to a child's current phonics knowledge so that every child can
experience real success in their reading.

In these crucial early stages of reading we primarily use books from Ransom and Collins Big Cat to ensure complete fidelity to the Unlocking Letters and Sounds progression we follow.

Teachers decide when to move children through the coloured book bands based on their progress with a wide range of reading skills, including decoding, fluency, expression and comprehension.

Once our pupils can decode unfamiliar words with confidence and are reading with increasing fluency, they are introduced to more challenging texts that sit beyond the fully decodable sets.

Moving from Year 2 into Key Stage 2, we employ a book banding system to help us to ensure that children have a reading book that they can read to a parent/carer successfully, with the aim of progressing their reading fluency and abilty to comprehend what they have read.

Children are also given the opportunity to take home a book from our library to read for pleasure.