At St John’s we use several reading schemes to assist in the teaching of reading.

At the earliest level of reading we ensure children’s reading is closely linked to their phonics knowledge with children accessing Read Write Inc Storybooks and Book Bag books, both in school and at home, ensuring every child is accessing a book at their phonic level that is decodable for them. These decodable books introduce the graphemes in a step by step progression that reflect the sequence of sounds taught in school and are pitched at the child’s phonics level. They will contain only words that contain sounds the child has already learnt or a small amount of ‘red words’ that children will have learnt to recognise by sight in phonics lessons as they are non-decodable. The first books start with simple words and phrases. As children progress the books will contain more complex words with the full range of phonemes that children have learnt.

Once children are confident, fluent readers Rigby Star and Rigby Rocket books are introduced. Rigby Star is used in class during guided reading sessions, during which the children are taught strategies to unlock the meaning of text. Rigby Rocket books are used as home reader books, and each book is linked to a book read previously as a guided read in class. They provide opportunities for the children to practise key skills following on from a guided read. 

We also have a range of Jelly and Bean, Oxford Project X and Reading champion books to run alongside and supplement our reading books. These books are book banded and children will read a range of books across each book band. 

Children in Key Stage 2 continue to read with the above schemes appropriate to their reading level, with the addition of Rigby Navigator, Oxford Treetops and Ginn Pocket books. 

Alongside the reading schemes listed above the children also read class novels, access books daily from their class libraries and take home a reading for pleasure book from our well stocked school library.