Reading and Phonics

The enjoyment of reading is at the heart of St Paul's.  Children are encouraged to read daily and experience a range of texts.  Children follow the Oxford Reading Tree scheme which supports systematic progression in the context of engaging literature.  Alongside this, children take a home reader book home to enrich their reading repertoire.  In addition to this, every child visits the school library weekly to select a book of their own choice.  

Phonics and spelling is taught throughout English lessons and the wider curriculum, including daily dedicated phonics sessions in Early Years and Key Stage 1.  We have chosen to follow the progression of DfE-accredited scheme, Anima Phonics. We chose this scheme because it covers all aspects of the phonics curriculum with coverage from phase 1 to phase 6. Every sound has its own character which children will learn to recognise alongside the written grapheme. Each character also has a rhyme which highlights the sound that it makes and there is also a mnemonic to support with the formation of the letters. Every sound has an engaging animation, an opportunity to see it applied to both real and 'alien' words and a range of resources to support children applying their new knowledge. Teachers ensure that their phonics lessons are engaging, quick paced and relevant to each individual child. Our phonics lessons are multisensory offering a wide range of activities to support children embedding their knowledge. We supplement Anima Phonics with resources and activities from a range of other schemes too, selecting the most effective strategies to provide variety.