English: Reading

At Manland we strongly believe in children developing a love of reading, whether it is through books they read at school, books which are read to them at by someone else or books they discover for themselves in a library.

The ability to read confidently and fluently is a life-long skill that sets children up well for learning. Aside from that, children at Manland love reading! Fortunately, our children are already very positive about reading and relish getting ‘lost’ in a book. The Manland Book Spine encompasses a range of titles that explore relevant social issues, contain big ethical questions, raise moral dilemmas and are joyful literary experiences!

Reception Reading Spine - 2026-27

Year 1 Reading Spine – 2025-26
Year 2 Reading Spine – 2026-27
Year 3 Reading Spine – 2026-27
Year 4 Reading Spine - 2026-27
Year 5 Reading Spine – 2026-27
Year 6 Reading Spine – 2026-27

Year 6 Reading Intent
Year 5 Reading Intent
Year 4 Reading Intent
Year 3 Reading Intent
Year 2 Reading Intent
Year 1 Reading Intent

These carefully chosen titles encompass new authors (and much-loved ones too!), stories from our literary heritage, high-quality non-fiction, poetry, and characters who are ethnically diverse. Our carefully chosen Book Spine acts as both a window and a mirror – a window into other places and experiences, a mirror in which children can see themselves reflected in the characters they’re reading about.  These titles also serve to complement and support our English lessons. They cover a range of genres: fiction, non-fiction, poetry and play-scripts. These texts serve to support and inspire children’s writing by providing a structure to base writing upon and ideas or plots to borrow for their own writing.

What we read shapes how we think.  At Manland, we encourage children to read deeply and ‘loiter’ with aone step further: not only do they want to read ALL the books on the Spine, they’re inspired to read other titles by newly discovered authors too.  It is so important that children have access to familiar titles they love, and new titles to ignite and inspire.  We are passionate about reading and are determined that every child leaves our school having read a healthy breadth of books combined with a true love of reading.

We use the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds phonics and reading scheme for Reception and Key Stage 1. Little Wandle Letters and Sounds is a complete systematic synthetic phonics programme (SSP) developed for schools by schools. Based on the original Letters and Sounds, but extensively revised to provide a complete teaching programme meeting all the expectations of the National Curriculum, the Ofsted Deep Dive into reading and preparing your children to go beyond the expectations of the Phonics Screening Check.

For further information on our phonics and reading scheme, please click here. The resources on Little Wandle’s website will help you to support your child with saying their sounds and writing their letters.

There are also some useful videos at the bottom of the page so that you can see how your child will be taught at school, how to say the letter sounds and providing some information to help you to feel confident about supporting your child’s reading at home. Find the full Reception and Year 1 teaching programme overview here to see what your child will learn and when.

Listed below are the initial phonics phases that your child will be taught in the first half of their Reception years:

Pronunciation Guide 1 – Autumn 1
Pronunciation Guide 2 – Autumn 2
Grapheme Information Sheet – Spring 1

For further tips on reading, please take a look at our reading workshop slides:

KS2 Parent Reading Workshop

Introduction

Your child will bring home two books. One is for your child to read to you. It has been carefully chosen so that they can work out all the words. The other book has words your child may not be able to read yet. It is for you to read to your child and talk about together.

How to read a story to your child

If you can find the time beforehand, read the read-aloud book to yourself first, so you can think about how you’re going to read it to your child.

On the first reading:

• Make reading aloud feel like a treat. Make it a special quiet time and cuddle up so you can both see the book.
• Show curiosity about what you’re going to read: ‘This book looks interesting. It’s about an angry child. I wonder how angry he gets…’
• Read through the whole story the first time without stopping too much. Let the story weave its own magic.
• Read with enjoyment. If you’re not enjoying it, your child won’t.
• Read favourite stories over and over again.

On later readings:

• Let your child pause, think about and comment on the pictures.
• If you think your child did not understand something, try to explain: ‘Oh! I think what’s happening here is that…’
• Chat about the story and pictures: ‘I wonder why she did that?’; ‘Oh no, I hope she’s not going to…’; ‘I wouldn’t have done that, would you?
• Link the stories to your own family experiences: ‘This reminds me of when …’
• Link stories to others that your child knows: ‘Ah! Do you remember the dragon in ….? Do you remember what happened to him?’
• Encourage your child to join in with the bits they know.

As a school we offer a range of text types and hope this is encouraged at home as well.  To help support you and your child in selecting a book that will capture their imagination, support their love for a particular theme or engage them in a lifetime of loving a chosen author, we have worked together as a school to create an interactive and current booklist. We hope you and your child find it enjoyable reading a range of our suggestions.

Made by Dyslexia is a great website (run by people with dyslexia, for use by others with dyslexia).  We’ve recommended this to individual parents before, but we think it’s a useful link for all.

https://www.madebydyslexia.org/

The Reader Teacher website will help your child find the correct book for themselves and their interests:

https://www.thereaderteacher.com/