At High Ash, reading is at the heart of our curriculum. We believe every child deserves to be a confident, fluent and curious reader.

Phonics Lead and Interim Reading Lead – Mrs Natalie Barrasford

Reading Lead – Mrs Ella Derham (Maternity Leave 2026-27)

Early Reading in Key Stage One

In Years One and Two, the children follow the RWI Phonics Scheme and progress through  stages which build on their blending, developing fluency, accuracy and understanding.

Guided by the evidence-informed pedagogy of Christopher Such (The Art and Science of Teaching Primary Reading), we aim to balance the rigorous mechanics of decoding with explicit comprehension teaching, rich vocabulary development and a genuine love of reading.

The children's reading journey begins with a focus on decoding and fluency.

• Phonics First: We use the Read Write Inc. (RWI) programme to deliver systematic, synthetic phonics instruction, giving early readers the foundational tools they need to decode with confidence.  Children who require support to keep up have 1:1 daily phonics tutoring.

• Matched Practice: Children take home decodable reading books closely aligned with their current phonics stage, ensuring success and building early independence.

• Shared Storytelling: Alongside their decodable book, every child chooses a library book to take home for an adult to read to them.

Once children are assessed as 'readers' and can decode fluently, they move to guided reading sessions designed to develop Accuracy, Automaticity, Prosody and Comprehension.

• Whole-Class High-Quality Texts: Our daily reading lessons bring the entire class together to read rich, diverse and challenging texts.

• Curriculum Triangulation: Where possible, our main reading texts complement our foundation curriculum topics. This deliberate alignment deepens children’s background knowledge, reinforces subject-specific vocabulary and turns reading into a powerful tool for discovering the world.

• Fluency at the Core: Through echo reading, choral reading, and targeted teacher modelling, children learn to read not just accurately, but with expressiveness and rhythm (prosody), unlocking deeper comprehension and critical inference.

• Assessment & Support: To ensure no child falls behind, we track progress using regular  assessments alongside national benchmarks at Key Stage 1 and 2. We deliver targeted, phonics interventions to ensure children have the support they need to succeed in becoming confident readers.

 Reading for Pleasure

Teaching children how to read is only half our mission; inspiring them to choose to read is the other. 

• A Thriving School Library: Every class enjoys dedicated weekly library time to browse, discuss, and choose from our selection of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry.

• Year 6 Reading Ambassadors: Our pupil leaders maintain our library space, champion new arrivals, recommend titles to younger peers and run lunchtime reading groups.

• Author Visits & Book Clubs: We regularly host published authors. 

• Community Partnerships: Through close ties with local independent bookshops, we keep our library shelves freshly stocked with diverse, contemporary texts and offer discounted books directly to our families.

"When we teach a child to read, we give them a skill; when we inspire a child to read, we give them the world."