Reading is a fundamental part of learning in Reception Class and is taught through a combination of high-quality systematic phonics, shared reading, storytelling, vocabulary development and reading for pleasure. Children are encouraged to develop the skills, knowledge and confidence needed to become successful readers while fostering a lifelong love of books and stories.

Word  Reading

Children are taught to:

• Recognise and say the sounds for individual letters.
• Learn and apply a growing range of grapheme-phoneme correspondences, including digraphs.
• Blend sounds together to read words.
• Read common exception words.
• Read simple sentences and phonically decodable books with increasing fluency and confidence. 

By the end of Reception, children working at the expected level will:

• Say a sound for each letter of the alphabet and at least 10 digraphs.
• Read words consistent with their phonic knowledge by sound-blending.
• Read aloud simple sentences and books that match their phonic knowledge, including some common exception words.

Reading Comprehension

Alongside phonics, children develop comprehension through:

• Listening to and discussing a wide range of stories, poems, rhymes and non-fiction texts.
• Answering questions about what they have heard or read.
• Predicting what might happen next in a story.
• Retelling familiar stories using their own words.
• Learning and using new vocabulary from books and discussions.
• Making connections between stories and their own experiences. 

Promoting a Love of Reading

A rich reading environment is created through:

• Daily story sessions.
• Access to high-quality fiction, non-fiction and poetry.
• Opportunities to revisit and re-read favourite texts.
• Book talk and discussion.
• Adult modelling of reading for enjoyment.
• Strong links between home and school reading.