As the Primary English Lead at St. Laurence’s, it gives me great pleasure to introduce our comprehensive Reading Handbook. This essential guide has been meticulously crafted for teaching staff, parents, and school visitors alike, with the aim of ensuring we all share a vision for our children and their reading journey.

At the heart of our reading approach is a strong foundation in phonics for our earliest readers. We believe that a solid understanding of phonics is crucial in developing proficient and confident readers. Our reading curriculum is carefully structured to build upon this foundation, ensuring a seamless progression in reading skills rather than viewing phonics as a separate entity.

Central to our philosophy is the importance of a strong home-school partnership in promoting reading. We recognise that when teachers, parents and caregivers work together to support reading development, the child is the ultimate beneficiary. Furthermore, we place great emphasis on providing high-quality Continuous Professional Development opportunities for our teachers, teaching assistants and senior leaders to enhance their knowledge and skills in teaching and assessing reading effectively.

We firmly believe that fluent readers are those who not only read quickly but independently extract meaning from the text they read. Our goal is to equip our students with the necessary tools to become discerning readers who engage critically with various texts. This handbook serves as a guiding light in our collective endeavour to foster a community of passionate and proficient readers.

You can read more about our reading offer including what we teach, how we teach it and why by clicking the link below.

Katie Smithers

English Lead

If you have further questions you can contact a member of the reading team via the school office. 

Emma Gaylor - Early Reading Lead

Katie Smithers - English Lead

Viki Solanki - English Lead