At St James CE Primary, we believe that it is essential that all children become confident, successful, fluent readers. To do so, we aim for all children to develop competence in word reading; promote and develop language comprehension; and ensure that throughout their time at St James CE Primary they experience a range of high-quality texts leading to a strong reading culture. We believe in the importance of teaching children systematic synthetic phonics as a firm foundation for reading. Being able to read most words ‘at a glance’, supports children in being free to focus on the meaning of what has been read.

We intend for all pupils to achieve to their full potential and will ensure this happens by:

• Following a systematic synthetic programme with fidelity (Little Wandle Letters and Sounds)
• Ensuring that all children participate in high-quality phonics sessions
• Tracking children from the start to ensure that no child falls behind 
• Providing additional support for children at risk of reading failure
• Ensuring all staff are experts in the teaching of reading
• Appointing a designated phonics lead
• Developing strong relationships between home and school
• Providing fully decodable readers that are carefully matched to the child’s developing phonics knowledge and do not require children to use other strategies to work out words
• Promoting a love of reading - Ensuring children apply their phonic knowledge in reading and writing across the full curriculum

Letters and Sounds | A complete Phonics resource to support children (littlewandlelettersandsounds.org.uk)