St Malachy's 
Reading
Reading for Pleasure: We hold Reading for Pleasure at the heart of everything we do at St Malachy's, so children are encouraged to develop a love for reading. We have class libraries that provide children with a range of texts to choose from. We source the books to ensure we provide high quality texts as well as texts based on children's interests so that these are suitable for all readers. Children take home a class library book whenever they wish and we actively encourage this.
Teaching: At St. Malachy's we use 'Read Write Inc.' as our Systematic Synthetic Phonics program. This program is followed with rigor and fidelity by all teachers and teaching assistants. Phonics lessons are taught to all children, daily in Years 1, 2 and Reception. To ensure that learning is embedded, flashcards and reading opportunities continue throughout the day and additional phonics teaching is given to identified children. Phonics remains the main strategy that we use to approach/decode unfamiliar words and spelling across the school.
Home Reading at Early Years and Key Stage 1 Expectations: Before books are taken home, children take home Word Lists. Children should be proficient independent blenders before books are taken home. Each child reads with an adult in school at least once a week. Those children working within the Read Write Inc. Scheme have their reading books selected by their Read Write Inc. teacher to match the sounds that they are currently working on or need to practice. This way the books become a focused tool to support progress. Children will have their book changed twice per week.
