Our beliefs

At Studley Green Primary School, we believe that reading is fundamental to learning, thinking and understanding the world. Secure reading enables pupils to access the full curriculum, develop knowledge, and engage confidently with ideas beyond their immediate experience.

We believe that becoming a strong reader requires more than decoding words. Pupils must develop fluency, rich vocabulary, background knowledge and the ability to think deeply about texts. Reading is therefore taught as a purposeful, knowledge‑rich subject that builds understanding cumulatively over time.

We believe that all pupils, regardless of background or starting point, are entitled to high‑quality literature, ambitious texts and expert instruction. Through reading, pupils develop curiosity, empathy, resilience and a lifelong engagement with learning.

Our reading curriculum

Our reading curriculum is ambitious, inclusive and carefully sequenced, and is taught using the CUSP Reading curriculum. It is designed around evidence‑led principles that prioritise explicit vocabulary instruction, fluent reading and structured opportunities to think hard about texts.

Pupils study complete, high‑quality texts, including fiction, non‑fiction and poetry, ensuring both breadth and depth in their reading experience. Texts are carefully chosen to build pupils’ knowledge of the world, expose them to diverse voices and perspectives, and connect meaningfully with learning across the wider curriculum.

Reading is taught through consistent lesson routines that support pupils to:

• Develop reading fluency and prosody through structured shared and oral reading
• Build and retain subject‑specific and academic vocabulary
• Retrieve information, summarise, infer, and analyse meaning
• Explore themes, structure and authorial intent
• Form thoughtful personal responses to what they read

In Key Stage 1, reading is taught alongside a strong phonics programme, ensuring pupils develop secure decoding while building comprehension, vocabulary and enjoyment of texts. In Key Stage 2, pupils read increasingly complex texts and develop stamina, fluency and depth of understanding.

Teaching is adapted where needed so that all pupils can access the same ambitious curriculum. Support is used to remove barriers, not reduce challenge, ensuring every pupil can succeed as a reader.

Through our reading curriculum, we aim for pupils to leave Studley Green as fluent, confident and thoughtful readers, equipped with the knowledge, vocabulary and reading habits needed for secondary school and lifelong learning.

Our approach to phonics

At Studley Green Primary School, we teach phonics using the Sounds‑Write linguistic phonics programme. Sounds‑Write is a systematic, cumulative and evidence‑based approach to early reading and spelling, ensuring that all pupils develop secure foundations for reading success.

All teaching staff receive high‑quality training, and the programme is used consistently across the school. This ensures a shared approach, high expectations and clear progression for every child.

Sounds‑Write begins with the sounds of spoken language and teaches pupils how these sounds are represented in writing. Children are taught to understand the relationship between sounds (phonemes) and spellings (graphemes) and to apply this knowledge through blending, segmenting and phoneme manipulation in every session.

How phonics is taught

Sounds‑Write develops knowledge systematically and cumulatively through three clearly defined stages:

The Initial Code

During the Initial Code, children:

• Learn one‑to‑one sound–spelling correspondences
• Are introduced to the concept that two letters can represent one sound
• Apply their knowledge to build, read and spell increasingly complex words

This stage establishes strong foundations in early reading and spelling.

The Extended Code

Once secure, children move on to the Extended Code. At this stage, pupils learn that:

• Some sounds can be spelled in more than one way
  e.g. sound /ae/ → spellings <ai, ay, ea, a‑e>
• Some spellings can represent more than one sound
  e.g. spelling <ea> → /ee/ or /ae/ (team / great)

The Extended Code consists of 49 carefully sequenced units, allowing pupils to deepen understanding through repeated exposure, practice and application over time.

Polysyllabic Words

Teaching of polysyllabic words runs alongside the Extended Code. Pupils are taught to:

• Separate words into syllables
• Segment each syllable into individual sounds
• Blend sounds into syllables
• Blend syllables into complete words

As pupils progress, they take increasing responsibility for identifying syllable boundaries, recognising stressed syllables and understanding schwas in weak syllables.

Our ambition for all pupils

Our phonics programme is ambitious and inclusive. All pupils are taught the same high‑quality curriculum, with support used to remove barriers to learning rather than reduce challenge. Teaching is adapted where needed so that every child can succeed and develop confidence as a reader and speller.

Through Sounds‑Write, we aim for pupils to:

• Develop secure, fluent decoding
• Build strong spelling and writing foundations
• Carry their phonics knowledge confidently into reading, writing and the wider curriculum

If you would like to know more about our phonics programme or how Sounds‑Write is taught at Studley Green Primary School, please contact the school office.