Reading Expectations

At Sacred Heart, we use The Oxford Reading and Writing Criterion to aid us in our assessment of reading and writing skills. 

These criteria describe the reading and writing journey that children make, from their first pre-writing behaviours through to a more complex and sophisticated understanding and mastery of writing skills. The reading and Writing Criterion Scales break down children’s  development into small steps so that it is easy to identify the point children have reached, and the steps they need to make next in order to progress.

Although the criteria are set out in a rough hierarchy, every child’s reading and writing journey is different, so the  Criterion Scales support a ‘best-fit’ teacher judgement against national expectations.

By the end of Reception children should be able to:

 Handle books correctly.

  Listen to stories and other texts read to them attentively.

 Talk about familiar books confidently, including key characters, settings and events.

 Use words and illustrations to gain meaning from stories and information books.

  Read most common CVC words automatically.

 Sound and blend words containing taught vowel and consonant digraphs.  Retell a known story in the correct sequence.

  Find information to help answer simple questions.

  Make simple predictions about stories and information books.