Reading at The Flying High Academy Ladybrook

At The Flying High Academy Ladybrook, reading is at the heart of our curriculum. We believe that every child has the right to learn to read fluently, confidently and with enjoyment. Reading unlocks the rest of the curriculum, supports wellbeing and communication, and opens doors to future learning and life opportunities.

Our approach to reading follows a carefully sequenced journey from the moment children start school. Each stage builds on the one before it, ensuring that children develop strong early reading skills before progressing to more complex comprehension and analytical work. We prioritise early reading because it is the foundation for success in every subject.

Early Reading (F1 and F2)

In Foundation 1 (Nursery)

Children develop the language skills they need to become successful readers. Through stories, songs, rhymes and talk-rich play, they learn to:

• listen carefully
• use new vocabulary
• understand story structures
• retell and enjoy books
• orally blend

These early experiences build the oral language and vocabulary knowledge essential for later reading success.

In Foundation 2 (Reception)

Children begin Systematic Synthetic Phonics through No Nonsense Phonics. They learn to:

• recognise sounds and letters (phonemes and graphemes)
• blend sounds to read words
• read books matched to the phonics they have learned
• develop fluency and prosody (expression and intonation)

All children take home decodable reading books matched to their current stage of reading. This ensures that reading at home reinforces the skills learned in school and supports success, confidence and enjoyment.

Year 1 – Strengthening Fluency

In Year 1, we continue daily Phonics teaching using No Nonsense Phonics and begin Launchpad Reading, a structured whole-class approach designed to secure:

• fluent decoding
• blending
• accurate reading
• expressive oral reading

This allows children to become confident readers who can access more demanding texts later in the year.

Later in Year 1, once children are secure in their Phonics and fluency, we introduce elements of Complete Comprehension alongside Launchpad. This prepares them for the increased demands of comprehension work in Year 2 and ensures no child moves on before they are ready.

Year 2 to Year 6 – Complete Comprehension

From Year 2 onwards, children follow the Schofield & Sims Complete Comprehension programme. This provides a systematic, progressive approach to teaching reading skills. Across the school, children learn to:

• understand and use new vocabulary
• retrieve key information from texts
• infer meaning and justify opinions
• summarise, predict and evaluate
• discuss texts confidently and articulately

This approach enables pupils to access increasingly complex texts while continuing to develop fluency and enjoyment.

Alongside this, each year group has access to a carefully curated library of age-appropriate books to support reading for pleasure, author knowledge and text diversity.