Our Reading Principles 

At Sarisbury Infant School your child will receive a varied reading experience. Below is the books your child will receive whilst at school and the reading lessons they will encounter. 

Letters and Sounds Reading Book

These reading books are specific to our phonics programme and every week the children will be issued with a new book. These phonic books will be issued every Friday and every child in the class will be provided with the same book. Each week the new book will contain the sounds the children have learnt in class that week as well as any high frequency words they have been exposed to. These books will provide children with the opportunity to consolidate their knowledge of the new sounds as well as practising the key skill of segmenting and blending.

Phase Book

This book will be the children's free choice reading book that they can pick from the class selection. These books are stickered from phase 1 to phase 6. Some of the phases may contain A and B as these phases require more consolidation.  Some of the texts may contain sounds or high frequency words children may not have been exposed to yet. These books are to help promote comprehension skills and the love of reading.

Reading Lessons 

Children have 1:1 reading every week in Early Years. This enables teachers and support assistants to develop children's word reading and comprehension abilities. Children will listen to class texts every day and each class has special books chosen from the library to read and enjoy.

In KS1 children have an even balance of guided and 1:1 reading. The focus of reading in KS1 moves from word reading to comprehension skills. During guided reading sessions children learn to analyse texts, ask and answer questions, how to use non-fiction texts, discuss word meanings and make links between texts already read. During these sessions children will also complete independent reading activities.

Library

We are extremely lucky to have a well-stocked library at Sarisbury Infant School. Children in Early Years are able to visit the library throughout the year with their class to select special books to enjoy together. Once children enter KS1, they have library time once a week. During this time, children are able to select a book to take home and learn library skills. Children are encouraged to pick a book of their choice to share at home.   

As a school we subscribe to Hampshire Library Service which allows us to have up to date books in our library, teachers have access to group texts to use in guided reading and enables teachers to be trained at the Hampshire Library Service library.

This is our reading spine chosen by our teachers. These are the books that every child in our school will be exposed to during their three years here. The books chosen are much loved classics, diverse and we believe will help develop a child's love of reading. Each classroom will have two copies of the text in their book corner that the children can read themselves again and again.

 Love of Reading 

As a school we ensure children are exposed to books throughout the school day. In our Early Years children have book nooks in the classroom and books are placed throughout the unit during continuous provision. In KS1 each classroom has a book corner with books chosen from the library and linked to topics. We also ensure children are taught about their reading journey in school. Every year we celebrate World Book Day and have a school book fair to promote the love of reading at home.